Mass Effect 3: Aftermath
by Terrorize
Summary: The war with the Reapers may be over, but Shepards war is far from over as surviving enemies use the deadliest weapon against him, love. A dark romance/action. Story picks up after the Catalyst gives your choices in the end of ME3. Updated 24/5/2012
1. Chapter 1: The Choice

Shepard slowly limped forward, all three choices were laid out clearly before him. Destroy, Control, or Synthesis, each choice would not only save Earth, but each world and all of the races in the galaxy would be free from the terror of the Reapers.

But which choice? He knew he didn't have long to make his choice, the war was still raging outside. He knew that if he took too long, his choice would be in vain. His mind was racing, nothing was making any sense, too many pieces that didn't fit together but he couldn't work out why.

He considered all three options as he limped forward.

He could destroy the Reapers, and forever rid the galaxy of their threat,however at a heavy cost as Catalyst had warned him. The result of this decision would be the destruction of all synthetic life including the Geth. The Geth, for whom he had worked so hard to defend their right to survive, to bring peace with them and the Quarians. Legion's sacrifice would be in vain, even now Shepard could see Geth and Quarian ships working side by side to take down a Reaper. EDI would also be destroyed. Without her, Shepard, the crew, and the Normandy would never of made it this far. And as he continued to think about it he remembered his synthetic implants, this would kill him as well.

Shepard considered the other options as he limped closer to making a choice.

He could take control of the Reapers, just as The Illusive Man had said. He could halt their attacks and send them back to Dark Space from which they came, but in doing so, he would also become a Reaper. Everyone would be spared at the cost of his life.. but then what? The Reapers would be back in another 50,000 years. He'd just be prolonging the current cycle just to have the Reapers return to finish the job and the next time they may not have the same chance as he had now before him.

Shepard finished limping towards the crossroad, from here he'd have to make his choice, he looked ahead at the final option.

Synthesis. Throwing himself into the beam, adding his energy to the crucible would take life to the final stage of evolution, the merging of all organic and synthetic life. The cycle would be over for good and the Reaper's job would be done and life would go on for all. For a moment Shepard was overwhelmed with the idea, he could save everyone now and all of the future generations. Then a thought hit him, everyone would become the same race. How would everyone react to this? Going from their own backgrounds, cultures, and ideals. To becoming a single race, everything they were, taken away in a flash. The act would dwarf the genophage as being the biggest and most widespread act of genetic assault. It was both morally and ethically wrong and he had no right to make that choice for every living thing in the galaxy.

"You need to make a choice soon" The Catalyst warned him, his voice echoing across the chamber.

He was right, Shepard was being drawn to either controlling the Reapers or Synthesis. But while he thought to himself, the downsides to both choices were huge. Yet he was still being drawn towards them. He looked over to the power conduit, shooting that would destroy the Reapers. His gut instinct was telling him to do it and he'd always gone with that instinct, it always worked out for the best.

His body and mind were being drawn one way, his gut another. It didn't make sense. Then he thought back to the Catalyst, the child. He tried so hard to discourage Shepard from destroying the Reapers and encouraged the other options. Then something dawned on Shepard, when the Catalyst mentioned The Illusive Man and control he had said "We were already in control of him." We? Who's we? and control him how? Like the Reapers do through indoctrination?

Shepard looked back at the Catalyst and then he knew. The Catalyst, this child, or whatever he was trying to be.. was a Reaper. He knew what he had to do.

With all his will and strength, Shepard raised his pistol and pointed it at the power conduit and shot.

"What are you doing?" The Catalyst yelled.

"Ending it, once and for all."

The next few words that came from the Catalyst changed, they belonged to an all too familiar voice. It was Harbinger.

"You know nothing, You cannot escape your fate. You have only delayed the inevitable, the chaos will consume you and all organic life will perish." Spoke Harbinger, his voice booming across the hub.

"Then I guess I'll see you in Hell!" Replied Shepard as he unloaded a few more rounds into the power conduit.

The conduit exploded, the Crucible's beam turned crimson red, releasing a massive red light that blinded Shepard. His head felt clearer but everything was turning dark around him. He stumbled to the floor as the world went black around him, just before he hit the floor and his mind slipped away, he heard Harbinger's final words.

"Releasing control."


	2. Chapter 2: The Subconscious

Shepard awoke in the same park that he had been having dreams of. Was he dreaming or was he dead? He could see the ghostly black images all around him. He looked around and as he looked to the left by the warped trees he saw a boy stepping out from beyond them.

"Are you the Catalyst?" Asked Shepard

"No." The boy replied

"Where am I? What is this place?" Shepard asked the boy as he looked around, "I've been here before in my dreams."

"This is the collective subconscious of the Reapers, of Harbinger. It is where the minds of those Harbinger has enslaved or those he has preserved reside, a subconscious neural network, from here Harbinger controls all those who are connected"

Shepard was finding it hard to take in what the boy was saying, a few moments ago he was on Earth, then the Crucible and now here. He had a lot of question but no idea where to start, so he ended up asking the first one that came to mind.

"Why does it look like a park?" Immediately Shepard felt stupid asking such an irrelevant question with everything that was going on.

"What you see as a park, is your subconscious trying to piece together the neural network in a way that you will be able to comprehend."

"Wait, hold on a sec, you said this is the subconscious of the Reapers.. So why am I here?" Shepard demanded.

"You fought it, you've overcome it. But you still haven't worked it out? The child asked with an amused tone and look.

"Worked out what?" Shepard was starting to get frustrated.

"Indoctrination."

Shepard was stunned but for some reason in his mind, he was not surprised. Alot of things haven't been making sense recently, as he looked back and reviewed some recent events in his mind, everything that happened on the crucible, what Anderson and Harbinger has said. How could he not of realized this?

"So I was indoctrinated?.. for how long? Shepard finally replied.

"The process had begun the moment you encountered Sovereign, but your will was strong. It was a long and slow process and it didn't reach fruition until direct contact with Harbinger at the Conduit on Earth. When he attacked, the blast that had hit you knocked you out and broke your will. Indoctrination was just about completed then."

"Then how did I end up on the Crucible?" Replied Shepard, unable to hide his confusion.

"You were never there, you never left Earth. Indoctrination created the illusion you were still in control, still had hope. Harbinger had your mind and you had become bound to his will, his subconscious neural network, just as we had. But you broke free and regained your will."

Shepard's heart skipped a beat, if everything had been an illusion then does that mean it wasn't over?

"So then.. I didn't stop Harbinger and destroy the Reapers?

"You did. Your mind was connected to Harbinger's subconscious, just as was the Catalyst, by breaking free you broke Harbinger's control over you and the Catalyst. The source of Harbinger's power and control resides in the collective subconscious and is controlled by subliminal suggestion. When you chose to destroy the Reapers, your mind unknowingly harnessed the Catalyst's power with your subliminal suggestion which then led the Crucible to destroy the Reapers."

"I think I understand, but doesn't that mean I destroyed all synthetic life as well? Replied Shepard, his voice full of regret and guilt.

"No, only the Reapers. It was part of Harbinger's plan to take control over you to play against what he believed to be your weaknesses. He lied about all synthetic life being destroyed as he believed you'd never pick genocide."

The area started to shift around them, started to distort and fall apart. "What's happening?" Shepard demanded as he watched the world around him crumble.

"Your actions destroyed the Reapers, thus the collective subconscious also. This is the last spark of that subconscious before it fades from existence."

"I'm sorry." Shepard replied, feeling strangely sympathetic for the boy.

"Don't be, we are free and that is thanks to you. And to show our appreciation, we will leave you with a parting gift. The Mass Relays, a single power core from the heart of a Reaper has enough residual energy to reactivate a dozen Relays."

The world had now almost completely crumbled from beneath them.

"So is it over?"

The boy paused for a moment, "No, Harbinger's mind managed to separate from the subconscious. We suspect he now shelters in the mind of his latest agent." The boy paused again and looked up, "And now it is time for you to return" As he looked up the world grew dark and Shepard felt his mind once again slip away...


	3. Chapter 3

Tali came round waking up in agony, she was up against the wheel of a wrecked Mako. She wiped the dust of the screen of her mask and soaked in the view of the battlefield around her. There was no part of her body that wasn't in pain, she felt stiff and half dead as her vision cleared up.

"Keelah.." She gasped as she saw all the injured and the dead bodies around her, she looked up at the sky and yelled in a pained voice, "You Reaper bosh'tets!"

It wasn't till then that she realised that there was something missing, there were no Reapers, atleast none fighting. All she could see around her and in the distance, Reaper destroyers toppled over and destroyed. She could no longer hear gunfire or commands being shouted about at troops, instead all she could hear was cheering. People were cheering, even the injured.

Tali tried to make it up to her feet only to be let down by a sharp pain in her left thigh, her hands moved down down to comfort her legs. She looked down to see that her suit had been punctured, her left thigh section of her suit had a large rip and embedded in the wound, was a large bit of shrapnel. "Keelah" she thought to herself, the pain was agony. But she couldn't concern herself with that now, she had to find Shepard.

"Commander Shepard!" She called out as she struggled to pull herself up against the Mako. "Shepard!" Shouting louder with increased desperation.

"Tali'Zorah" Came a synthetic voice, she looked around to see it was EDI, moving toward's her. Her synthetic body had seen better days, most of her panels and coverings had been scorched by the blast and even some of her interior circuits were showing.

"EDI! Are you ok?" Tali asked in a concerned voice. _Keelah so much has changed, who'd of thought i'd care about a synthetic._

"I am fine Tali. I do not experience pain as organics do, just a slight dip in efficiency and this platform is still functional." EDI explained calmly, her face showing no emotion as always. "You are hurt. You're exo-suit has been compromised, you will need immediate medical care to reduce the risk of a life threatening infection."

"No! We need to find Shepard first, he could be hurt.. he may need me.." Replied Tali, her voice dropped of, full of worry. Shepard was never far from her side and now he was nowhere to be seen.

"As you wish Tali. We should investigate around the ruins of the conduit."

Tali propped herself up with the help of EDI and they began to move towards where the conduit had been. All around them soldiers of all species were helping with the injured, Turians helping Humans, Salarians assisting Krogans, even Geth were helping out, it was uplifting to see everyone getting along, and they all had Shepard to thank for it. They began to search all around the rubble and the ruins of what had once stood in the centre of the clearing, Tali tried to use her omni-tool scan the area for him but there was either too much interference or it was damaged. _"Or worse"_ she thought to herself, he had to be here somewhere, he couldn't just leave her, she wouldn't allow it.

"Tali over there!" EDI pointed out to a pile a rubble, next to it almost hidden from sight was a body, a body with N7 printed on the upper chest piece of the tattered body armour.

"Shepard!" Cried out Tali, she raced forward, stumbling with her injured leg, the pain pulsated through every inch of her body, but she didn't care she just wanted to be with Shepard.

She ran and collapsed at his side panting and breathing heavily, he was badly injured, his body was covered in gashes that soaked him in blood, his skin has been severely burnt in alot of areas. The sight of him like this brought tears to her eyes, she placed a hand softly on his cheek and spoke softly to him.

"Shepard?.. it's me.. wake up.. you picked a bad time to take nap commander... Shepard?.." She leaned down close, while she was unable to feel his breath through her mask to see if he was breathing, she just wanted to be close. She was unsure what to do, she could see his chest wasn't moving.

EDI had finally caught up and stood over them, she raised her arm and activated her omni-tool "Tali, I am not picking up any life signs, but several of my subsystems are damaged. It's possiable I am unable to get an accurate reading"

"I can't see.. or feel.. anything.. I've seen humans do this thing with wrists.. to check for a pulse, but I don't know how.." Tali replied softly, her voice just slightly louder then a whisper. She turned to look at EDI "Quick EDI go find help!"

EDI didn't need telling twice, nor did she hang around to answer, she ran out of sight toward's the other survivors to find help.

Tali looked back down at Shepard. "Shepard.. please.. don't leave me.. I need you" She was crying inside her mask, she couldn't accept the fact that Shepard could be dead, not again. She unfastened her mask and placed it next to Shepard, she no longer cared what would happen to her, without Shepard she didn't want to go on living again, it was too painful last time and back then they hadn't been nowhere near as close. The tears rolled slowly down her face as she leaned in close. "Keelah Shepard.. I love you." Her lips brushed against his softly and kissed him, she maintained the kiss for as long as she could, she didn't want to let go.

When her lips parted she curled up next to him and rest her head against his chest, she could feel her hair grow wet as it drapped in his blood, her tears streaming down her cheek and onto his armour. The Reapers may of been defeated but with Shepard gone, her world had gone too she thought to herself and wished that she had died too, but without her mask on and her injuries, she'd join him soon enough and she took a sad comfort in that.

As Tali rested against him, what was only minutes seemed like days to her, she grew drowsy most likely as a result from her wound and her mask being off. She felt as she was starting to hear, see and feel things, she so desperately wanted him back that when she felt his chest move slightly under under, she believed she was dreaming and kept believing so as his chest moved slowly up and down. Then came a voice.

"Keelah se'lai.." Shepard spoke softly.

Tali's head shot up and looked at Shepard, who was looked back at her. "Keelah!" she yelled out in surprise, a wave of emotions came over her, and she acted on them as they came to her. She hit him hard on the chest.

"Hey! What did I do? Exclaimed Shepard.

"Don't you ever do that to me again.. you bosh'tet.." Tali replied tearfully

He looked down at Tali, her eyes were red raw from where she had been crying, "Tali.. I'm.." Shepard didn't get a chance to reply as he was taken by surprise from a kiss by Tali.

As she pulled away slightly, a small sad smile appeared on her lips and Shepard responded with one back "I'm sorry Tali.. I take it you forgive me?" Teased Shepard, smiling down at her.

"Well.. I guess.. maybe.. I may need a little convincing still, prehaps you could start by kissing your girlfriend.."

"Aye aye, Miss Vas Normandy" Grinned Shepard.

Tali moved up close to him and wasted no time in locking her lips with his, he ran his hands through her hair slowly and held her close to him, neither of them wanted to let each other go, not ever again.

"Tali.. I love you" Shepard told her as there lips finally parted.

"I love you too, commander" She said playfully.

She lent back close and they kissed passionatly, ignoring the footsteps that were approaching. "They are over here!" Shepard heard a voice call out, he ignored it and carried on attending to Tali.

EDI had arrived with the rest of the crew, they stopped in there places when they saw what they walked in on, along with a group of Salarian medics who had been ready to treat their wounds temporary untill they got them to a med bay. Tali notiched the audience they had picked up, "Keelah!" She exclaimed while quickly reaching for her mask and reattaching it.

"Hey now, I don't see any medical emergency here EDI" Said an amused Garrus.

"On the contrary Garrus, they both still require medical care for thier injurys and the trauma they will of recieved." EDI replied, failing to get Garrus's meaning.

"It was a joke EDI" Joker said, smirking. "Besides I think they got the trauma treatment under control."

Shepard laughed and held Tali close as the medics moved in to treat them.

. . .

In the distance, a lone figure was watching the scene below from the rooftop of a ruined building, flakes of ash falling from his cigarette. He raised brought his hand back to his mouth to take another draw from his cigarette, exhaling smoke. His eyes were a sharp bright blue and his face was blackended in areas.

"Shepard may of think he's won this time, but ultimately his victory will pale in the grand scheme of things." The Illusive Man said seemingly to himself, untill a voice replied, from his own mouth that didn't belong to him.

"_He has prevented nothing, the chaos will grow ever stronger_" Harbingers deep voice booming from The Illusive Mans mouth. "_We will find another way_."

"Shepard will learn that he has to pay for his actions." The Illusive Man paused to have another gasp from his cigarette. "We will break him and I know just how to do that." Despite being a fair distance from the scene down below, he focused his view on the Quarian.

The Illusive Man dropped his cigarette and crushed the bud with his foot before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a comm's device. He activated it and spoke into it.

"Operative." He said

"_Sir? You're alive?" _came a female voice over the comm's device

"Ofcourse I'm alive, you should know better. I will not rest till our goal's are met." He replied back coldly.

_"Yes sir, sorry sir."_

"I'm sending you coordinates on a extraction point" He punched in the details on the comm's device.

_"Got them sir, shuttle onroute."_

He deactivated the device and slipped it back into his pocket. He took one last look at the scene below, _"Soon Tali'Zorah will come round to our way of thinking"_ He thought to himself as he slipped into the shadows and out of sight.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been 2 weeks since the final battle, and only now was Shepard being discharged from an Alliance medbay, he hated being confined to them and had spent enough time in them to last a life time, or in Shepards case, two.

"Are we nearly done here Dr. Chakwas?" Shepard asked impatiently "Got someone I need to see." He shifted restlessly while Dr. Chakwas checked him over.

"And would that someone be a certain Miss Vas Normandy?" Chakwas asked smiling, "I understand you wanting to see her, being kept apart for the past 2 weeks while you were treated, but we are nearly done here commander."

"_Two long weeks_" thought Shepard to himself, and he had seen everyone but Tali. She had to stay in a sterile ward till the infections she had recieved from her injury had cleared up.

"Ok commander we are nearly done here, I do have something I wanted to show you first" Chakwas passed a data pad over to Shepard. "Is that the boy you told me about?"

Shepard studied the files, one of them was a holo picture of the boy from his dreams. "That's him.. do we know what happened to him?"

Dr. Chakwas sighed, "I'm sorry Shepard, his body was recovered from a downed shuttle."

"Do you have an idea why I might of kept seeing him in my dreams?" Shepard asked, feeling sorry for the boy.

"Well, I'm no psychologist. But I can speculate from what you have told me, my guess would be he was a psychological manifestation used by Harbinger to represent you're guilt and inability to save everyone, to help in breaking your will." Chakwas paused realising she may of hit a nerve. "I'm sorry Shepard."

"It's ok Doc, don't worry about it, and thanks for finding out for me."

"It's the least I could do" She said as she finished entering data in Shepards medical file "Ok I won't keep you any longer, go to her." She added with a smile.

"Thanks Doc" Shepard didn't need telling twice, he grabbed his jacket and headed down the corridor to where Tali's ward was located, as he passed people they saluted him. Nearly everyone did it now whenever they saw him, they saw him as a hero and thier saviour. It made him feel slightly uneasy but atleast he wasn't the only one getting this treatment, most of his team was and like him they felt uneasy. "_Well except Joker_" He thought to himself, he purposely walked people twice to make them salute.

As he reached Talis ward he stepped into the decontamination unit that connected the corridor to the ward. The door sealed behind him and the decontamination cycle started, he was looking forward to seeing Tali again, even although she was closeby, it pained him that he was unable to visit her and make sure she was getting on ok.

The door to Talis ward opened as the decontamination cycle ended, he stepped through to see her laying on her side. He walked over to her bed and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Sleeping on the job Miss Vas Normandy? I may have to send you to the captains quarters." Shepard smirked as she stirred from her sleep.

"You bosh'tet.. I was having a lovely dream.." Tali grumbled as she turned to face her visitor. "Oh Shepard!.. sorry I was abit out of it.. still running abit a fever... sorry."

Shepard smirked, "That's ok Tali, so how's my little Quarian doing?" Sitting on the bed next to Tali.

Tali moved over and rested her head against Shepard. "Well.. apart from the fever, all the infections have cleared up.. still ache in some areas..." She paused and then said in her seductive tone "but was thinking.. maybe you could help with that later.."

Shepard laughed, "Well im off-duty for awhile so I'm sure we could arrange something"

"I look forward to it.. And how are you feeling? You sleeping better?"

"Much better, stopped waking up in cold sweats, and a few more scars to add to my collection" Shepard chuckled "Although Dr. Chakwas warned me that if she see's me in medbay one more time she'll give my models to Joker."

"Ha! Oh no, not your toys... lucky no one told the Reapers of your biggest weakness.." Tali teased.

"There not toys!"

"Oh really, then why have I seen you flying them around in your hand?"

"That was!... tactical space combat.. analysis." Shepard said, slightly embarrassed.

"Whatever you say.. Commander" She said playfully. She cuddled up to Shepard close as he put her arm around her.

"Did they say how long you have to stay here for?"

"Well.. I think.. actually I can leave tomorrow."

Before Shepard could speak he heard the hiss of the decontamination unit. "I think you got a visitor Tali"

The door opened, it was Admiral Hackett. Tali let Shepard go so he could greet the admiral.

"Admiral." Shepard said, saluting him.

Hackett saluted in return "Shepard. At ease. Chakwas told me I could find you here. I'm sorry to intrude Tali"

"That's ok Admiral.. I imagine you have alot to talk about" Tali replied

"What can I do for you Admiral?" Shepard asked "Did you get my mission debriefing?"

"Keelah Shepard.. you was meant to be resting! Don't tell me you spent that time filling out reports? Tali enquired in a annoyed tone.

"Sorry Tali, the boredom was driving my crazy" Shepard said while shrugging. Tali shaked her head at him.

"Yes I got it, it was a intresting read to say the least. But that's not why I'm here, felt I should warn you. You and the rest of your crew are expected to give a speech next week at the victory ceremony, you and the crew will be honored guests." Hackett sighed. "Bad timing if you ask me, what with all the racial tension that's building up."

"Tension? Why?" Shepard asked taken aback. "You'd think most would be pleased they saved the galaxy."

"You'd think so, but with the mass relays out of action.. the fleets are stranded here, people can't get home."

"Out of action? How so?"

"Well, I'm not sure how excatly, we managed to piece some information together from witnesses from the fleet and comm messages from other worlds. But when the crucible fired, it used the mass relays to spread the wave across the galaxy, but in doing so it drained the relays of thier power source. We've had ships of engineers working around the clock with the Sol relay, trying to find a way to reactive it. But so far we've had no luck." Hackett summed up in a defeated voice.

Silence fell in the room, Shepard took in everything that was said and paced the room while he thought. Something was bugging him in the back of his mind, something the boy had said. He pulled out the data pad Chakwas had gave him on the boy, a gift.

"Reaper cores" He said to himself, both Tali and Hackett looked at him puzzled. Shepard turned to look at them, "I'm sorry Admiral, I forgot something in my mission report. Something I was told by the Reaper subconscious, Reaper cores have enough energy to reboot a mass relay!"

"Are you sure Shepard"

"Positive Admiral." Shepard smiled.

"Well I best get that information passed on right away, thank you commander" Hackett saluted and left after Shepard returned the gesture.

"Forgetting things in your reports commander, sign on you getting old." Tali teased as she got out of the bed.

"Don't remind me.. least guess that means we can look forward to the ceremony" Shepard sighed.

"Keelah.. don't remind me.." She said as she walked towards to the door. "I'm.. not very good with crowds.. don't think I could do it." She accessed the door controls and locked the door. "I may.. need abit of a confidence boost.." She turned round to look at Shepard "Any ideas?" She asked in her seductive voice, that voice that made Shepard feel warm inside and put a smile on his face.

"Well I do have some ideas, would love to run some of them through with you." Smirked Shepard.

"Oh, most definitely.." She took of her mask and place it on the side, her hands moved behind her head and she unfastened her hood and neck brace, letting them fall to the floor. She continued to remove section after section of her suit as she moved slowly towards Shepard, her hips swaying hypnotically. By the time she had got to Shepard she was completely topless, she kissed him softly then pushed him to sit down on the bed.

"Miss Tali'Zorah, are you trying to take advantage of your sick poorly commander?" Shepard teased back and kissed her, his hands moving over her body.

"Well.. along as you dont add this in your mission report" Tali said playfully, she pushed him down onto his back and straddled him "So whos the little Quarian now?" She giggled "Now.. get the rest of this suit of me.."

. . .

In the early hours of the next morning, while Tali laied curled up in Shepards arms. A bright shot of light illuminated the night's sky for a brief second as the Sol relay kicked back into life.


	5. Chapter 5

"_I can't take all the credit although."_ Came Shepards voice from a view screen on a desk, it was the day of the Victory Ceremony, the event was being broadcasted galaxy wide over the extranet. "_All of my crew, my friends played an important role, and I could never of done any of this without their support"_ The view screen then went blank and a breath of smoke filled the now blank space, a cigarette was then extinguished in the ash tray beside the blank screen, by a figure sitting in the shadows.

The Illusive Man switched the view screen to transmite a message, after entering commands into the console the view screen flared back into life, it showed the image of a slim white human female in a Cerberus officers uniform.

"Operative." He said, acknowledging her.

"_Sir_." She stood to attention, she knew the order was about to come.

"It's time we set our plan in motion. Being Project Zorah." He stated clearly.

"It will be my pleasure sir" Her reply was cold and full of malice.

The Illusive Man ended the transmission, he pulled out a new cigarette and lit it. Smirking to himself as he took a draw.

. . .

After the transmission ended, Operative walked over to central command console. She started to review the mission details for the final time, everyone in the room had heard the message and had started making final preparations. One officer was reviewing the schematics of the Alliance Vegas Plaza, a large Alliance recreation strip where the ceremony was taking place."_Our target must be of great importance for Operative wanting to snatch her from under the noses of the Alliance. I almost feel sorry for her, I wouldn't wish Operative on anyone." _

He glanced over at the stern women, and felt a chill. Everyone in the room feared her and with good reason, no one knew anything about her. Even her name was unknown, just like The Illusive Man she went by her codename "Operative", the only thing people knew is that she's the black hand of Cerberus and that she was utterly ruthless and without mercy. Even towards Cerberus personnel, she shot the last guy who worked at this console in the back of the head, for needing to use the restroom. "_And were setting her loose on this Tali."_ Just then her voice broke his line of thought as she spoke over the intercom.

"_This is Operative to all squads. Commence operations."_

_. . .  
_

Shepard collapsed into the seat next to Tali, sitting at a table with the rest of his friends. "Remind me to never save the galaxy again.." Shepard sighed and rubbed his face. "Facing everyone like that..."

"Keelah don't remind me... I never want to remember today... and that advice you gave me.. it didn't work at all! Bosh'tet!.." Tali pouted.

Shepard chuckled to himself. "What advice did he give you then?" Garrus asked with a smile. "Imagine them with no clothes on?"

"Ha, yeah and covered in chocolate no doubt." Joker added.

"That sounds about right Loco." James said, barely lifting his head of the table.

"I.. err.. that may of... that is basically.. boy, it got hot in here.." Tali said quietly.

The guys laughed and went back to thier drinks. "You boys can be so mean, don't worry Tali, use girls stick together" Ashley said.

"Oh, erm thank you lieutenant commander Williams." Tali said

"Oh come on Tali, I know this is a formal ceremony, but you're here with friends, can drop rank." Ashley said smiling at Tali.

"Thanks Ash.. by the way.. how much longer is this ceremony going to last?"

"Well.. let's put it this way Tali, it will be another 300 years before you return to your homeworld." Joker smirked.

"Keelah.." Tali sighed.

"Don't worry Tali, im sure we can sneak away at some point." Shepard said cheerfully.

"I feel.. odd" EDI blurted out.

Everyone looked at EDI, then looked at the 5 empty bottles of asari vodka.

"Errr EDI.. did you drink all that yourself?" Liara enquired.

"I did not wish to waste it." EDI replied, her words were slightly slurred.

"This may be a erm.. stupid question... but are you.. drunk EDI? Tali asked, her head tilting slightly to the side.

Shepard turned to look at Tali. "And how much have you had to ask that?" Shepard said grinning.

"I adjusted my subsystems to simulate the effects of the alcohol so I could fully appreciate the festivities." EDI replied before resting her head on the table.

"That's my girl, think we'll need to get you of home soon. Your going to have one hell of a hangover." Joker laughed.

There was a round of applause in the plaza as a politician finished his speech only for another one to take his place on stage. Everyone around the table groaned.

Tali leaned her head on Shepard's shoulder and looked at him, she felt his hand touch her leg and stroke slowly, she let out a low moan that only Shepard could hear. He smiled down at her, he was giving her that look that she had been waiting for all night. They locked eyes and she grasped his arm with her hands and giggled softly. They were interrupted by the sound of chairs shuffling she looked up to see that most people in the plaza had got up, and were proceeding to other areas to carry on the festivities.

"Finally" Garrus said, "That's all the politics out of the way, now the real party can begin."

"Ohhh that means they will be showing the screening of the latest Blasto movie" Ashley added. "Whos coming?"

Both Garrus, Liara and James said they would and headed of together to the screening after saying good bye to the rest of the group.

Joker then helped EDI to her feet. "I think I should get EDI back, you know, before you simulates vomit over me." He smiled down at her, "Think she misses the Normandy, we've not been allowed on it for the past few weeks, apprently they are adding some surprise upgrades for us."

Tali got up with Shepard, he had his arm around her waist. She loved it when he could show his affection in public for her, sometimes she wish she could take off her mask and just kiss him for all to see, how much they loved each other. "I'm errr... going to head to our room... but I need to.. erm do some stuff before you come.. so can you.. maybe give me about half an hour?" Tali asked Shepard shyly.

"Oh? Well ofcourse I will Tali.. i'll try not get too impatient" He teased.

"Thank you... this little Quarian... has a surprise for you.." She teased back, she gave him a hug and pulled away slowly to head to thier room, making sure she wiggled her hips as she knew he was watching.

He smiled as he watched her walk away then turned to Joker. "I'll give you a hand getting EDI home then."

As Tali walked away she bumped into a waiter while lost in thought. "Oh, sorry"

"Thats ok miss."He replied, she nodded at him and carried on walking away. The waiters hand moved to his head and activated his ear piece. "_Tracer placed._"

. . .

Tali had been in her room for about 20 minutes and was fitting the last bits of her suit back on, her mask was the last bit she had to reattach which was laying on the side. She had to take off her whole suit for the surprise she had planned for Shepard but he was worth it and hopefully he'll enjoy what she did for him. She heard her door unlock and open, she didn't turn round to look but guessed it could only be Shepard.

"Keelah Shepard, few minutes earlier and you would of ruined your surprise" She giggled and picked up her mask, she could hear footsteps moving silently towards her. "_Guess he thinks he's going to take me sneakily from behind, well I'm ready for you"_She thought to herself as she placed her mask back on. "No headstart for you.. your going to have to work for it" She teased seductively then turned round to face him.

The last thing Tali saw, was the butt of a rifle racing toward's her eyes and coming into contact with her visor.


	6. Chapter 6

The Quarian collapsed onto the floor out cold, Operative stood over her looking down in disgust, she lowered her assault rifle and slung it back over her shoulder and onto her back. "Quarian suit rat" She spat out down at her, with her were three Cerberus soldiers.

"This is disgusting." One of them said, "Putting alien scum in quarters like this when most the city lies in ruins. Fucking Alliance."

Another one approached Tali and knelt down by her head. "I've never seen a Quarian up close before, I wonder what she looks like under the mask" The Cerberus soldier proceeded to remove her mask then paused, he slumped forward dead with a bullet hole in the back of his head.

Operative holstered her pistol, "No one is to touch her unless I say, shes very.. _valuable_" She said in a disgusted tone, no alien could ever be valuable she thought. She beckoned the two remaining soldiers to pick her up, they moved forward and picked her up by her arms between them and moved towards the door, Talis feet dragging across the floor.

Not far outside was a Alliance guard patrolling the halls. "_Man.. I wish I was at the ceremony, really wanted to see the new Blasto_" he thought to himself, "_Still.. maybe I'll bump into Commander Shepard._" The guard was a new recruit, just turned eighteen and had been part of the ground resistance against the Reapers. He'd been tasked to the light security detail around the VIP hotels, he knew that Shepard's room was along one of these halls and kept walking back and forth between them hoping to catch a chance to meet the legend himself. He rested against the wall and heard a group of people, "_Wonder who that is_." He thought excitedly. He looked down the hall to see a group leaving one of the rooms, they had someone being held up between them. "Too much to drink I take it?" He called out down to them.

They looked back at him then turned away and carried on walking. "_Rude_." He thought to himself, he then notiched that the person wasn't being helped along, they were being dragged. He then saw the arms around thier waists. "Hey, wait right there a minute." He called out to them and started walking towards them.

The two dragging the person kept on walking, but the third turned on the spot fast, her hand moved to her waist in a blink of an eye and pulled out her pistol. Before the guard could react, she fired and he fell back, dead.

Operative smiled and reached for her ear piece. "Target has been acquired, proceed to stage two."

. . . . .

"You wouldn't guess that 3 weeks ago this area was in ruins." Joker commented as they walked along.

"I know what you mean." Shepard replied, reflecting on the Plaza. Clean up crews had been working around the clock, just days after the fight had ended when it was decided that the Vegas Plaza would host the ceremonys. Compared to most areas, this area hadn't been hit too hard by the Reapers, it wasn't home to any sort of major population or manufacturing facilities so it was never a threat to them. The same couldn't be said for Old Vegas, the nearby city. It had been annihilated by Reaper forces, and despite all the effort and coverup that was done to tidy up the Plaza, the ruins of the Old Vegas skyline stood clearly for anyone to see.

Before they headed for the hotel Joker and EDI were staying at, which was on the other end of the Plaza, they ended up taking a detour through the merchant district. Both Shepard and Joker got distracted by a merchant selling new ship models, they admired a model of a Geth dreadnought, "Atleast this one won't blow up while you're on it Commander" Joker said. They also spotted what they were told to be a Rachni frigate.

"Think i'll have to come back and buy these when its quiet." Shepard said.

"You mean when Talis asleep, she'll kill you if she knows you bought more." Joker laughed.

They also checked out a few more stores before heading back, but not before Hackett had caught them both and had them address a crowd before unveiling a new memorial wall. They took a few minutes to respect those that had given thier lives in the battle for earth, some of them Shepard knew including David Anderson and Hannah Shepard, Shepards mum.

"I'm sorry Commander.. I didn't know." Joker said quietly "Do you know what happened?"

Shepard already got the news while in medbay, "Yeah, she was commanding officer on the SSV Einstein. The ship had taken heavy damage and it wasn't salvageable. She gave the order for everyone to escape on the escape pods, when everyone was clear she set the ship on a collision course with a "Sovereign" class Reaper. She went down with the ship but took the Reaper with her."

"She'll be honored Shepard." Hackett said before going of to talk to some others.

Shepard, Joker and EDI had only just got to the hotel, it should of only taken a few minutes after Tali left them but thanks to the detour nearly half an hour had passed.

"You should get going Commander, you got a hot date waiting" Joker teased.

Shepard smiled. "Yeah I should, but I'll give..." Shepards words were drowned out by a loud screech, the sound cut through Shepards head with a sharp pain. It had came from EDI.

She collapsed on the floor, Joker cradled her in his arms. "EDI! EDI whats wrong girl?" Joker exclaimed.

She could barely get a word out, she was jittery and couldn't form a word properly. "N... n... Nor..." Was all she could muster. Joker held her tight.

Before Shepard could ask her anything, a loud explosion then rocked the Plaza, followed by screams and gunfire in the air. "What the hell is going on!" Shepard demanded, the explosion seemed to have come from the entertainment district. "_That's where the rest of the team had gone_" he thought, he reached for his comm's device.

"This is Commander Shepard, does anyone copy?" He yelled

"Garrus here sir" His voice came over the comm's device, he could hear firing over the line. "Cerberus forces just blew up half the plaza! And are shooting at anything that moves!"

"I'm on my way!" Shepard turned to Joker, "Take care of EDI, i'll find out what the hell is going on."

Shepard pulled out his M-3 Predator heavy pistol that he had hidden by his wasitline and ran into the crowds towards the entertainment district. As he got closer and entered the courtyard he could see the extent of the explosion, most of the shops and clubs on the right hand side had there fronts ripped of. Some area were think with smoke, he could make out Cerberus and Alliance troops exchanging fire from behind cover. He raised his pistol as he got closer and took a couple of shots at two Cerberus troops whos cover was exposed from the angle Shepard had come in it. One dropped to the floor dead while the other dived to the side, and fired back. Shepard moved behind a pillar to avoid the shots, he could see Garrus, Ashley and Liara across the courtyard. They were shooting at troops from behind a half wall, Liara was using her biotics to flush out Cereberus troops for Ashley and Garrus to pick of.

Shepard leaned out from behind cover just intime to catch the second troop with his head exposed, he took the shot to take him down. More Alliance troops entered the courtyard, they had the Cereberus forces outnumbered and outgunned but they had dug in deep and had abit of a defensive position and rained down suppressing fire. But they made no move to advance or gain a foothold, they seemed to be holding thier ground. "But why?" Shepard thought to himself as he took aim and shot a few rounds before moving behind cover again.

. . . . .

The explosion had worked as intended, Alliance forces were pouring away from thier post's towards the Plaza. Leaving Operative's path clear for the best part, any Alliance troops that crossed thier paths were swiftly dispatched before they could alert others to her presence. She took point as the soldiers dragged Tali behind her and made thier way towards the Alliance hanger, which by now should of been cleared of any resistance.

Two Alliance soldiers hurried along not far inhead of her, heading the other way. They never even saw her as she dropped them with a flurry of her hand and pistol. As they approached one of the hangers side entrances she raised her pistol as the door opened, just incase. They stepped inside to see bodies of Alliance troops scattered along the corridor, she lowered her weapon. "_The infiltration team had done thier job._" She thought as they stepped over the bodies. Cerberus troops were setting up defences and digging in for the inevitable fight that would soon be apon them.

A officer stepped out of a room to greet her, looking down at thier target. "Operative. Everything has gone as planned. We disabled the alarm but left the video feed operational as you requested. Also the EM pulse successful shutdown the A.I Core aboard the Normandy, and we've rebooted and restored the systems, there is no sign of "EDI" left in the systems. But we are unsure if it would of killed her inside her "platform." The officer was slightly worried when he told Operative the last part, he had no idea if that would put thier plans at risk.

"You have done well, alert the crew to prepear her for take off, we leave as soon as she's ready." She replied coldly and walked into the room with Tali in tow. It was one of the security feed rooms, "_Good, this will do nicely_" She thought. She stood under one of the security camera's so it had a clear view of her, then she beckoned over the soldiers carrying Tali so the feed had a clear image of her also.

"Commander Shepard." She spoke up to the camera, "The Illusive Man... sends his.. regards." She then drew her pistol and shot out the feed. "Ok, take her aboard the Normandy and up to the captains quarters, I'll attend to our guest personally after we've gotten clear.

Gunfire then filled the air not to far from her, Alliance troops had found them. It didn't matter she thought, they'd be long gone with thier cargo before they could muster enough people together to stop them. She then headed to the main hanger to board the Normandy.

. . . . .

Shepard primed a grenade and threw it behind where the last of the Cerberus troops had holed up, the blast sent them flying. He quickly sweeped the area with his pistol untill he was sure the last of them had been taking care of then holstered his weapon. He ran over to where the rest of his squad had taken cover.

"Is everyone ok?" He asked.

They paused and looked at each other, it was Ashley who spoke up. "I'm sorry Commander.. James is dead."

"Dammit!" He said angrily, "What happened?"

"A bomb went off across the courtyard, James was over there getting tickets for the show... Then Cerberus troops bursted out of some of the buildings and opened fire while everyone was in shock." Garrus sighed.

"Wheres the others?" Liara asked.

"Jokers back at the hotel with EDI, something happened to her, but before I could find out, we heard the explosion.. and Tali was meant to be back at our room... shit I best check up on her." Shepard replied and activated his comms device, "Tali come in! Are you ok? Where are you?" He spoke, but got no reply. "Come in Tali!"

Then a voice came from all thier comm's. "_This is a open broadcast to all nearby Alliance forces, Cerberus forces have seized control of the Hanger! We require immediate assistance!_"

"Fuck! The Normandy!" Said Shepard

"Shepard, I'll go find Tali, you and the others go kick some Cerberus ass!" Ashley said then ran off in the direction of Tali and Shepards room.

"Right ok guys let's go!" Shepard told the others and headed off towards the hangers.

. . . . .

They arrived on the scene to find a fierce gunfight on the way, shots rained down from both sides. YMIR Mechs had been called onto the scene to deal with the Cerberus Atlas's, rockets bombarded both sides forcing everyone to bunker down behind cover.

"Let me even out the odd's abit" Garrus said and took aim with his Black Widow sniper rifle, he fired a shot that managed to pierce the thick canopy of one of the Atlas's and took out its controller.

They all then took what cover they could find, only moving out from cover when they had a clear shot. With the heavy mechs moving forward they drew the attention and fire of the Cerberus forces, enough to allow Shepard and his team to take advantage and dispatch a couple of groups. They pressed the attack and used the mechs as portable cover, but like before the Cerberus troops were holding the line despite heavy losses. "Then I'll just wipe every last one of them out" Shepard thought.

A loud rumble filled the air that drowned out the sound of the gunfire and rockets. The unmistakable sound of the Normandy roaring into life, "Fuck! Hurry!" Shepard shouted to everyone, they pressed the attack hard and cut down the remaining Cerberus troops, but it was too late. They watched as the Normandy rised up from the hanger rooftop and blasted up into the air and out of sight.

"Those bastards!" Shouted Shepard, he ran forward with his weapon at the ready, ready to engage any Cerberus forces left behind. They moved through the hanger fast, there was little resistence to be found but any they did see were quickly dispatched.

"I'll go access one of the security rooms, maybe we can learn something from there." Liara said and headed down the corridor with some Alliance personnel.

"Joker will go insane when he finds out" Garrus said turning to Shepard.

"How could this happen? Right under our noses" Shepard said angrily, he started pacing around the now empty hanger.

"We wasn't to know Cerberus were still at large.. I thought we saw the last of them at Cronos Station" Garrus sighed.

"We let our guard down! Too caught up in celebrations and politics!" Shepard kicked a nearby generator and cursed as his foot throbbed in pain.

"Hang on, what's that?" Garrus said, walked over to the generator and knelt down next to it and started inspecting it. "This is EM pulse emitter, there outlawed in just about every system.."

Shepard paused to think for a minute. "If Cerberus had come here to steal the Normandy, they would of known EDI would try to stop them... they would of had to take her offline to have any chance to steal the ship.."

"Right.. why would Cerberus go through all this trouble just to steal a ship, even if that ship is the Normandy?"

"_Commander_?" Ashleys voice came over Shepards comm device.

"Ashley! Did you find her?" Shepard replied

A paused came before Ashley replied, "She's gone sir.. Cerberus were here."

"No! I'll be right there." Shepard said starting to worry and headed off towards the exit, but stopped as Liara's voice called out to him.

"Shepard! Come here quick, you're going to want to see this!" Liara called out to him, she almost sounded tearful.

He looked over to Garrus and he was looking back at him, they both hurried down to the security room where Liara had been. Liara had the camera feed up on one of the view screens.

"I.. dont know what to say.. Im sorry.." Liara said, tears were crawling down her face as she started to play the video feed.

The video showed as Cerberus troops moved through the hanger killing everyone on the spot and leaving them dead where they hit the ground, the video then skipped to Cerberus troops carrying the EM pulse emitter onto the Normandy, there was pause and the feed went dead from where the emp had gone off. Then it had rebooted, a slim human female stood infront of one of the cameras, she called over two Cerberus troops. And inbetween them, was Tali.

"No! No Tali!" He slammed his fists on the desk, his eyes were watering up. Liaras face was in her hands and Garrus had his arm around her comforting her.

The women then spoke to the feed. "Commander Shepard. The Illusive Man... sends his.. regards." She said before shooting out the feed. The last clip then showed Cerberus troops dragging Tali aboard then Normandy before it had taken off.

"They got my Tali... no... Tali.. TALI!" Shepard shouted.

. . . . .

"Wake her." The Illusive Man said.

Tali woke with a scream as a strong electrical current passed through her body, Operative smiled as she used the console that administered it. Tali struggled only to find herself restrained to some sort of operating table.

"Good morning Tali'Zorah, glad to have you with us." He said to her, he took a draw from a cigarette and exhaled the smoke over Tali.

"Let me go!.. you Cerberus bosh'tets!" Tali yelled, she tried to wriggle out of the restraints, but it was no use, she was secured down tight, then she yelled out as another current passed through her body.

"Now now an attitude like that won't be very healthy for you" Smirked the Illusive Man.

"What do you want with me?" Tali said, trying to be intimidating.

"Well Miss Zorah, you are going to endure more pain then humanly possible, or in your case quarianly possible. Then you will come round to _our_ way of thinking." He had a large grin on his face.

"Your way of thinking? I'll never join you! You may aswell kill me!" Tali shouted, she screamed again.

"I guessed you'd say something like that and I expected no less from one of Shepards.. _trusted_ friends." He paused for asecond and stood up to dispose of his cigarette. "That is why my.. partner you could say. Will be giving you his undivided attention."

She looked at him, thinking that he meant the female human that was with them. Then her eyes went wide with terror as she heard a all to familiar voice.

"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL!" Harbingers deep voice came booming from The Illusive Mans mouth.


	7. Chapter 7

"I'm sorry Shepard, we have no new intel on the situation" Hackett said to Shepard as he paced up and down his officer. He had been two weeks since the incident at the Plaza, two weeks since Tali had been snatched away from him by Cerberus. "We've sent envoys to the special forces of most races, even from a political view this is important to everyone. Both Tali and the Normandy are icons to the galaxy, and to be in Cerberus hands will be very.. damaging."

Shepard hated that politics had been brought into it, but he kept his mouth shut. If it meant getting Tali back sooner he couldn't care less at the moment about who got involved.

Hackett sighed, "Theres little else I can do for now im afraid, you know this better then anyone. Tracking the Normandy is a big challenge.. I don't think we'll see it again untill Cerberus wants us to."

"Have we found out yet how so many Cerberus troops managed to infiltrate the Plaza right under our noses?" Shepard was still furious at how Cerberus took everyone for fools.

"Believe me Shepard, I am as shocked as you are that this was able to happen.." Hackett reached into his desk and pulled out a data pad, he then handed it to Shepard. "Special forces came up with this intel on the women you saw on the hanger video feed."

Shepard began to study the information, this was the person responsable for taking Tali away, and she would pay when he ever found her.

"She goes by the code name "Operative", she real name is unknown. Hell, we dont know anything at all about her really.. you remember Rear Admiral Kahoku? Well we believe that she may of orchestrated the events leading to his death, as well as some of Cerberus most darkest moments. I don't surpose you ever heard of her when you had your dealings with Cerberus?"

Shepard handed the pad back, "No, never seen or heard of her before what happened.. I'll try contact Miranda, she used to be close to The Illusive Man. Maybe she knows more."

"If you could that may be a big help. Hmm, and how is EDI?"

Shepard sighed. "She's trying to get back to normal, but she's still in shock, or whatever the synthetic equivalent is.." Shepard lost alot that day, the Normandy, James, EDI nearly, and above all, Tali.

"I know this is hard, being stuck here on Earth.. we've decided also to commision a new Normandy for you"

Shepard gave Hackett a sharp look, "That won't be necessary Admiral, we'll get both the Normandy and Tali back."

"I appreciate you may be upset with the idea Shepard, but if you are to retrieve the "SSV Normandy SR-2", you are going to need the best, and the project is already underway"

Shepard noticed how Hackett used the Normandys full name, meaning that he was now looking at this from a matter of Alliance security. They were then interrupted as Hacketts view screen flickered on.

"_Admiral we have a.. erm Geth here who wishes to speak with you." _Came a female voice.

"A Geth? Well what does he want?"

_"It said it has information to a possiable location of "Creator Zorah", shall I send it up?"_

Shepard and Hackett looked at each other, "Send it up right away." Hackett replied.

It wasn't long before the door opened and a Geth Prime stepped inside Hacketts office. It stood before both Shepard and Hackett, "Shepard-Commander, Admiral." It said acknowledging them.

"Well, err and you are?" Hackett asked, this wasn't the first time he had spoken to a Geth unit since they had started mixing peacefully with races, but he still never knew how to address them.

"I do not have a designation. But you may refer to me as "Prime". Prime replied.

Shepard spoke up eager to hear what the Geth had to say. "You said you had news on Tali?"

"We have news on Creator Zorah yes, we received your envoy approximately 39 Earth minutes ago. We then analyzed the complete Geth network for any data collected on either the Normandy or Creator Zorah in the past two weeks. The relevant data was then copied to the nearest Platform, which was me." Prime then stepped forward and handed a data pad to Shepard. "I apologize for the delay."

Shepard quickly flicked through the data. "Ok, I need the rest of the team up here."

. . . . .

All the team had gathered in a conference room not far from Hacketts office, Joker, Garrus, Liara, Ashley and EDI who had insisted to be present, were all there. The Geth Prime was also standing at the top of the room with Shepard.

Shepard wasted no time getting stuck into the mission details, "Ok everyone, two days ago the Normandy passed through the Dholen system and landed at this point.." A holo view of Haestrom appeared. "On Haestrom."

"Haestrom?" Garrus asked, "Why does that planet sound familiar?"

"Haestrom was the planet where we picked up Tali for our fight against the Collectors." EDI informed Garrus.

The team gave each other concerned looks. "Dosn't that sound abit.. you know... odd?" Joker asked.

Shepard looked around at the worried faces of his friends. "I don't believe its a coincidence either, Cerberus is up to something.. but if that's where Tali is, then thats where we need to be."

"How did the Geth even detect the Normandy? They didnt have a clue what hit them last time." Joker looked at the Geth. "Err no offense."

"Automated asteroid mining facility 316 detected the heat emissions from the SSV Normandy SR-2, the ship was not running in stealth mode." Prime stated.

"This whole thing stinks of a trap." Ashley said sounding defeated.

"Look I know how this looks.. that is why we are going to spring a trap of our own, Prime?" Shepard deferred to the Geth.

"The Dholen system is a high traffic ship lane for Geth mining transports. We have come to the conclusion that you could infiltrate Haestrom by using one of our transports. A ground mining facility is closeby to the last known location of the SSV Normandy SR-2."

"A trap within a trap? Clever" Liara said with a smile.

"I thought the Geth only mined asteroids?" EDI asked Prime.

"This is correct. The ground facility is used for repairs and storage of excess ore."

"What about the sunlight? Will be difficult if we have to attack Cerberus head on if we have to worry about our shields overloading in the sun." Garrus asked while stroking his chin.

"We'll be landing at the facility once the sunsets, hopefully we can be in and out before the start of the next day." Shepard replied then turned to Prime, "How long untill you can have a transport here?"

"One moment Shepard-Commander" Prime replied as his flashlight blinked a few dozen times in rapid succession. "Transport will be arriving shortly."

. . . . .

The squad was uneasy as they entered the Dholen system, they had no idea if Cerberus would fall for this, if they didn't then they'd have to escape quick. The transport would be no match for a dogfight against a Cerberus ship, or the Normandy for that matter. Even although the craft has been fitted abit more to accommodate organics, it was still a tight squeeze for everyone aboard, everyone was very restless, it hadn't been a long trip but by these standards, 5 days was along time. They moved nervously in thier seats, having to remain quiet untill they landed on the surface, as to improve thier chances of passing as a Geth ship.

Since the craft had no window's they couldnt check to see if the Normandy was about or any other Cerberus ships, Joker had to bite his lip to keep him from making a wise crack about Geth and windows. Shepard could guess how they felt, he had the same feeling when they flew blind through the Omega-4 relay, but atleast then he had the Normandy to feel abit safer in and the comfort of Tali.

The ship rocked about abit more violently then they had expected as they descend through the planet's atmosphere, they all fastened there safety harnesses and started putting on their helmets and breathing apparatus. Even Joker was suited up, Shepard tried to convince him to stay aboard the transport but after what had happened to EDI, he didn't want to be too far from her. Shepard understood how Joker felt, afterall, he'd lost Tali.

Everyone braced themselves as the ship landed, it's cargo ramp at the rear lowered down and hit the floor. No gunshots came. They all let out a sigh of relief, they hadn't been detected it would seem and they proceeded of the ship and onto the planets surface.

After everyone was off, Shepard turned to them "Ok everyone, were all going to split up and do abit of reconnaissance. We need to find locate where the Normandy landed and we don't have much time till the sun comes up so we need to be quick. Garrus those old ruins up there will make a good observation post, you should be able to see everything around us from up there." He paused to test the comm's device. "Ok comm's are working, so keep in contact at all times, as soon as you find something, call it in. Ok move out people."

Everyone then split up and headed into different directions, while Garrus headed into the old ruins and made his way to the top.

. . . . .

Watching from the distant shadows, her new jet black suit almost completely hid her from sight, the only thing that made her show slightly was the glimmer of her new crimson visor. She watched as they all went off into different directions, "_Mmm they are going to make this too easy for me"_ Tali thought to herself. She raised her hand slowly to her visor and activated her ear piece.

"They've landed" Tali said quietly into her comm's device.

"_Shepard is more foolish then I thought, I would of expected someone of his caliber to show more caution._" The Illusive Man replied in a snide tone.

"Well with me as the bait... how could poor Commander Shepard resist."

"_Apprently he could not. Did you get all the data?"_

She reached for a pocket in her suit and pulled out a data disk. "Got it right here."

"_Good, then you have your target. Eliminate it then bring me that data."_ He replied coldly.

"Yes sir." Tali ended the transmission, she placed the data disk back into her suit. She then typed into her omni-tool fast, jamming nearby comm devices. She began to stalk her target from the shadows...

. . . . .

Joker moved through the darkness,his bad leg slowed him down abit, but least he wouldnt be running into any trouble at this pace. He kept his assault rifle at the ready as he rounded a corner, something dropped in the darkness behind him, he turned on the spot abit too fast and fell backwards. He kept his rifle up and pointed it in the direction of the noise, then he saw some sort of small rodent. "Oh god dammit, I hate rats.. or whatever that is... no one told me there would be alien rats scurrying around.." He picked himself up slowly and looked slowly around. "Now I remember why I like waiting on the ship" He thought to himself, but he wanted to be near EDI, or as near to her as he could be at the moment. Joker felt uneasy, he had the strangest feeling he was being watched..

. . . . .

Shepard scanned the area with his omni-tool, hoping he could pick up something that would point him in the right direction. But he knew it was pointless, Cerberus may of given away where they were going to be, but that didn't mean they would make it easy to pinpoint. According to the Geth they were somewhere in this radius so spreading out had been the best idea, still he couldnt help feel if that had been a bad decision. "No" He thought to himself, "Each one of them were more then capable, they could hold thier own easy till backup arrived, even Joker. Also with Garrus up high, he could back up anyone form his position. He sighed, "What if were too late, it had been a week since the Geth picked up the Normandy.. " Shepard thought as he kicked the ground abit, this had been thier only lead since Tali had been kidnapped. As Shepard walked through the dark, sulking to himself, he couldnt help feeling someone was watching him..

. . . . .

Ashley got tired of looking for abit and decided to take a rest and sit on some rubble, she was feeling moody about the whole situation, Shepard dragging them off into the devils arms without any sort of backup or ship that could even handle itself in combat if needed. A suicide mission by all means, and this was all for Tali. She couldnt help feeling abit jealous and bitter over it, would Shepard do this for anyone else? Would he do it for her? She remembered when they used to be close, an item by all accounts.. then he died, and whatever feelings they had for each other died with him. She sighed, what was she thinking.. Tali and Shepard were made for each other, and she had always thought of Tali as a little sister. "Maybe it's this place" she said to herself, something about it didn't seem right, she felt eyes on her..

. . . . .

Liara moved slowly through some of the ruins, her pistol by her side at the ready. Any other time and she would love to study these ruins in depth, the Quarian architectural style here was unique, it exsisted no where else in the galaxy. She traced her fingers over what seemed to be ancient text on some of the walls. She carried over moving through the ruins, her eyes getting distracted by different aspects of this anicent history. "Well one things for sure, Shepard certainly takes us to alot of intresting ruins... still, a beach would be nice now and then also." She said quietly to herself, she turned quick to look outside as she heard a flutter of wings, her pistol was raised. "By the goddess.. this place certainly has a ominous feel to it" Out of the corner of her eye, just for a split second, she thought she saw a shadow moving..

. . . . .

EDI moved fast through the darkness, her pistol was constantly at the ready, her hips and aim sweeped to each side as she moved. Nothing would escape her gaze, she saw the rodents and the bat-like creatures that most wouldnt see sheltered in the dark. Ever since she had been detached from the Normandy, she had honed her platforms sensors and optical readings so she could never be taken off guard again. Or so she hoped. Without the Normandy, she felt incomplete, naked, like half of what she is was ripped away from her. For the first time since she had came online, since she came into existence. She had felt fear, fear of that existence ending, fear of lossing Jeff. In her trail of thought she had become distracted and nearly missed something that was lurking in the shadows not far from her. She pointed her pistol at the hidden figure..

"Come out." EDI commanded. "Slowly."

"EDI? Is... that you?.." Tali asked, stepping out of the shadows.

"Tali!" EDI said, immediately lowered her pistol. She inspected Tali for a second, she noticed the change of attire. "Did Cerberus do something to you?"

Tali didn't speak, she just nodded her head, and hanged it in shame.

"Hold on, Shepards here, I'll call him over." She activated her comms device, but all she got back from it was static. "We got interference from somewhere, come this way! Hes not far."

But Tali didn't move, "Theres just something I got to say first." She said quietly.

"What is it Tali?"

"I've always hated you... you synthetic bosh'tet!" Her words were cold and empty, before EDI could reply, Tali pulled out her Eviscerator shotgun. A loud shot broke the nights silence.

. . . . .

Garrus had seen the whole thing through the scope of his rifle, he was comletely speechless, frozen to the spot. "Tali.. how could you" He said to himself, He looked back down through his scope, Tali was standing over EDIs body. Despite the change of colour, Garrus would recognize her from anyway, she had a certain way about her as she walked, the way she handled her shotgun, he'd had plenty of pactice watching her from a distance. As he watched down the scope to see what she was doing down, she looked right at him. Even from his distance, she gave him a mocking salute then ran off into the shadows. "Shit" He said to himself, he climbed down the ruins as fast as he could and ran towards where EDI was.

Garrus heard pained sobbing as he got closer, then he saw Joker, kneeling next to EDIs body cradling her. It wasnt long till the others had arrived, gasp's and crying came from the girls. Shepard moved closer to them, he had to try his hardest not to look away. It was not a pretty sight, whoever had attacked EDI had done so at close range, with what must of been a very powerful armour piercing weapon. The blast had ripped her chest wide open, right through to her core, even although she was synthetic it was a messy sight. Joker kept her close and mumbling to her.

"Garrus, did you see what happened from up there?" Shepard asked.

"I err think we should talk about this in private sir.." Garrus said looking away, which had gotten Jokers attention.

"If you know something! Tell us now!" Joker shouted at Garrus.

"Jeff..." Came a voice that was barely louder then a whisper.

"EDI!" Joker looked back down at her, "Im here baby.. see look, your fine.. just a scratch.."

EDI made noises that none of them could understand, she was close to the end, "Jeff... I.. I love you.." And with that, EDIs body went limp in Jokers arms.

"EDI!.. NO! NO NO NO NO!" Joker yelled and punched the ground hard.

Shepard turned back to Garrus, "Look if you saw something you got to say now!" He was getting frustrated at the idea that Garrus could be holding information back.

"It was Tali ok!" Garrus blurted out.

Everyone went quiet. Garrus sighed and looked away, "I saw it... I saw her kill EDI.. in cold blood.."

"You saw it? And you didnt shoot her?" Joker yelled and stood up.

"I didnt know what was going to happen till it was too late! Then she was gone!" Garrus shouted back.

Before anyone else could speak, the all to familiar sound of the Normandy taking off. They all looked over to where the noise was coming from. The Normandy appeared over the tops of some of the ruins. It moved slowly towards where they were standing, turning showing its side to them, they could see the cargo ramp was down and standing on the edge looking down at them, was Tali.

Shepard studied her, she had a new suit on, black with a red visor. In her hand was her shotgun, the weapon she had used to kill EDI. Her head was tilted to one side, "Keelah, I'd love to stay and play... but I got places to be" She called out down to them, "It was so nice of you to come all the way out here to visit me." Tali laughed.

"Why you little bitch!" Shouted Joker, he reached down for EDIs pistol and aimed it at Tali. Shepard saw what he was about to do and pushed Jokers arm out the way, just in time as he fired. Joker dropped the pistol and swung at Shepard, his fist catching the side of his jaw. Garrus quickly moved to hold Joker back. Even with his helmet on, he felt that.

"Why did you do that?" He yelled at Shepard.

"Thats Tali!"

"That bitch killed EDI!" Joker managed to get out before breaking into tears.

Shepard looked up at Tali, she was laughing. "Well time for me to go... catch you later, my love." She walked up into the Normandy, her hand on her rear as disappeared inside. The cargo ramp closed up and then just like that, the Normandy was off.

Everyone was left speechless, staring up at the night sky. All except Joker, who was now back over EDIs body, sobbing.


	8. Chapter 8

The sun had set on Haestrom and it was now safe for Shepard and his team to get back to work. It had been three days since they had encountered Tali.. since she had killed EDI, they had been in too much shock that night to carry on and investigate the Cerberus base. A decision they had regretted the following night when they found that Haestrom's sun had seared shut the now unshielded entrance to the base. They had spent the last two nights cutting through the blast door with Geth mining lasers, it had been a slow job, they were not cut out to cut through such thick metal but they had managed to break through in the early hours of the morning.

The team had been mostly quiet the past few days, none of them knew what to say. They were all trying to make sense of it in thier heads, and no more so then Shepard. But he refused to believe that, that Quarian, was his Tali.. "Tali would never hurt a fly.. not like that.." He thought, he could only conclude that Tali was not acting on her own free will. Or atleast he hoped she wasn't..

Joker hadn't said a word to them since EDI died, he had taken EDIs body back to the ship and sealed himself away in one of the rooms. They had taken turns sitting by the door each night trying to talk to him, but it was no use, he was too deep in grief. Shepard had sent a message to the Alliance about what happened and they were sending a ship to extract them, "Which should be here in a few more days."He thought.

Tonight it was Ashleys turn to stay with Joker as Shepard, Garrus and Liara headed to the base, weapons at the ready. They doubted they would find anyone left in the base, they would of either left on the Normandy or been burnt to a crisp while trapped inside the base. They moved slowly through the base, searching each room as they went along, but each one of them told the same story, anything Cerberus hadn't destroyed themselfs or taken with them, the sun had fried. Untill they reached the heart of the base.

The main room had nothing in itself of significance, but to the rear was a blast door that had been locked down. Liara moved over to the door controls and began hacking away. There was a akward silence in the room, none of them had said much apart from the occasional comment on the base.

"This should only take a few more minutes" Liara said, "And this should also be the last room, unless there's anything beyond here."

Shepard sighed and said, "Theres gotta be something here that says why Cerberus.. Tali was here" Both Garrus and Liara exchanged looks with each other. "What do you guys think? Honestly."

"Shepard. I know what we saw is hard to believe, I've know Tali for as long as you have. We've all been through alot together, Tali would never do something like this." Garrus said placing a hand on Shepards shoulder.

"He's right Shepard, Tali is one of the sweetest people in the galaxy. She cares deeply for you, untill we have proof otherwise, I'll be inclined to believe Cerberus are behind her new behaviour.." Liara added, she looked at Garrus, despite what they both told Shepard, parts of them deep down both believed that just maybe Tali did it on her own will. It was a dark thought, one they both couldn't shake.

The door controls buzzed, they were in. The door opened and light filled the new room, it had no light source of it's own and the only light came from the room adjacent. The room itself was small, and for the most part empty. Shepard's heart sank as he saw what was in the room, the only thing in the room was a small table in the middle where the light fell, and on that table was Tali's old mask.

Liara and Garrus stayed where they were, they didn't like where this was heading or what it could mean. Shepard walked slowly towards the table and picked up her mask, his fingers stroked the cracks that were along the visor. "Oh Tali... what did they do to you.." He thought to himself, he looked down to see a data disk that had been under the mask. A note was stuck to it. "To my lover."

. . . . .

They had returned from the base not long after finding Tali's mask and data disk. Shepard had decided that whatever was on this disk, the whole team should see, Ashley had joined them in the cockpit. Shepard inserted the disk into the flight terminal and started to load it up onto the main view screen. Joker had left his room and was hanging around the back, no one had saw him arrive.

There was only 1 file on the disk, a video recording that was over 200 hours long. Shepard loaded it up only to be greeted by a familiar unpleasant face, The Illusive Man.

"Shepard." He said, pausing to smoke his cigarette. "I have no doubt that if you are watching this now, our mutual friend has accomplished her mission." There was another pause, "And no doubt you have questions you want answers too, and what kind of human would I be, if I held back information regarding someone who is close to your heart." He paused to smoke again. "Well Tali'Zorah has joined me after let's say, a intensive recruitment drive, she took.. a fair bit of convincing, but in the end, I'm glad to say she did see the light. But knowing you Shepard, you're going to want proof. I hope what you are about to see.. brings you closure."

The Illusive Mans message ended, the video now showed a bright white lab filled with surgical instruments and machines. In the middle of all this, strapped to a surgical table was Tali. The Illusive Man and Operative were with Tali in the room, Operative was by a console while The Illusive Man stood over Tali. A voice came from the video, from The Illusive Mans mouth, one that didn't belong to him but they all recognized it has Harbingers., "ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL!" It had said.

"By the goddess..." Liara gasped.

The lab then filled with Tali's screams as they tortured her, Operative sending shocks through her while Harbinger removed Tali's mask, his hands had grasped either side of Talis and leaned close as he said stuff to her. Tali was struggling against his grip but she couldnt escape, they were unable to hear what Harbinger was saying. Even his deep loud voice was illegible over Talis screaming.

"Those bastards!" Garrus said as Liara took comfort in his arms, unable to watch.

"I'll kill them... Cerberus... I'm going to wipe out every last fucking one." Shepard said quietly in a pained angry voice.

Ashley moved forward and put a hand on Shepard. "We'll find her" She said softly.

He skipped the scenes, every last one showed the same basic thing. Tali being tortured as her screams echoed around the room, some of them showed her hooked up to dozens of tubes as they pumped substances into her body. Alot of these devices Shepard could remember seeing on Horizon when Cerberus was experimenting with indoctrination.

"Wow.. that's just.. how did she survive all that?" Joker had finally spoken up, drawing everyones attention to him.

Shepard looked at him, then looked back at the feed. "If Cerberus can spend limitless amounts of resources bringing a dead man back to life... Im sure keeping a Quarian alive to endure.. this.. is no challenge to them... they didn't even give her the mercy of letting her die..." He said as he stopped the video.

Shepard sunk into a nearby chair, his head in the palm of his hands as Talis screams repeated over and over in his mind.

. . . . .

"Things are moving faster then expected." The Illusive Man said. "Opportunities have arisen that will heavily benefit our cause, and we have you to thank personally for it Tali'Zorah."

"Thank you sir" Tali replied.

"And now I have a job for you both, we have located more data that needs recovering on dark energy. It's in the hands of the Alliance. Its situated at Admiralty Headquarters, on Earth." The Illusive Man told them, both Tali and Operative looked at each other. "We've learnt its in a secured network thats only accessible from Admiral Hacketts office."

"Which brings me back to one of those opportunitys, it would seem that a memeber of the Quarian Admiralty Board, Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib.." He stated, unamused. "Is heading to meet with Admiral Hackett over the disappearance of one of thier own." He looked a Tali.

"What are your orders Sir?" Operative asked.

"You are to take the Normandy and intercept the Qwib Qwib. Kill Zaal'Koris, Tali and take his place in the meeting. You are to then retrieve the data, do what you will with Hackett." He then turned to face Operative. "Operative, you are to ensure security is left none the wiser. We have acquired identity documents that will get you past as an Alliance Rear Admiral." He stopped to have a smoke, "Alliance command has shifted so much recently, they will have no reason not to believe your documents even if they dont recognize you."

"Yes Sir." They both replied.

"Failure is not a option."

. . . . .

The Qwib Qwib had just finished refuelling in the Pax system and had resumed course for the Sol system. Zaal'Koris was not happy, the Alliance had taken weeks to inform the Admiralty Board that Tali'Zorah had been kidnapped. In the past he may of not been too fond of Tali, but the retake of thier homeworld was down to no small part to her. They owed her alot. He was then knocked of his feet as the ship rocked violently.

"What the hell was that?" Zaal'Koris demanded

"Were under attack sir!" Said one Quarian at a flight console, the ships alarms started to sound.

The ship rocked hard again "How the hell did we not detect it?" Zaal'Koris shouted at his crew.

"The heat emissions were hidden! It's the Normandy!"

"The Normandy? Cerberus!" Zaal moved to the intercom, "_All marines prepare for..._" He was cut off as a explosion ripped through a lower deck, a console blew not far from him. Throwing him back and killing two nearby crew members. The ship shuddered to a standstill as the engines went offline. A loud grinding noise viberated against the hull, the sound of docking clamps grapperling the ship. Not long after that the sound of a airlock being blown echoed throughout the deck.

As Zaal tried to prob himself up against the wall, heard marines shouting orders to each other. "_Take cover!", "Cerberus troops!", "Fall back!" _Were just some of the things he could hear over the gunshots as they grew closer. The bridge door blew open, a Quarian marine fell through the door way dead as Cerberus troops entered the bridge, executing the brdige crew.

Zaal watched as a Human female entered the bridge and inspected the scene, she turned to the Cerberus forces and told them to start immediate repairs. She turned to look right at Zaal, then she looked over at the bridge entrance, a Quarian in a jet black suit slowly strided onto the bridge.

"Over there." The Human said to the Quarian. The Quarian looked right at Zaal and slowly headed over to him.

"Good to see you again.. Admiral Zaal'Koris" Tali said.

"Tali? What the blazing hell is going on here?" Zaal demanded to know.

"I am.. relieving you of command" Tali said coldly, she raised a pistol up to Zaal. "Keelah se'lai" She fired her pistol several times.


	9. Chapter 9

The Qwib Qwib entered the Sol system after abit of a delay, Cerberus forces had been abit more heavy handed with the ship then Tali had intended, but Quarian ships were known for thier bad condition, everyone would just see the left over damage as a typical patch up job. The Cerberus forces had disguised themselfs with the suits of the dead Quarians, thier owners had been disposed of out the airlock. Tali had changed into Zaals suit which luckily was able to hide her figure. She had to replace his visor with a new one after she had shot Zaal through it. With some modifications to the mask, she had added a voice distorter that was concealed over her mouth, to cover up her voice and sound more like Zaal.

"Testing, testing.." She said to herself, her voice came out deeper and more manly. She felt sick, "_Oh not again"_ She thought angrily, for the past couple weeks she'd been waking up with high fevers, cramps and the urge to be sick. She had put it down to working in Cerberus bases and aboard thier ships, they wern't very Quarian friendly. Yet it still got her most irritable.

"Ma'am.. I mean Sir.. Err Ma'am" One of the Cerberus officers said.

"What is it!" Tali snapped at him

"Operative has given the go." He replied.

"Alright all hands to your stations, take her in easy." Tali said addressing the bridge crew.

The Qwib Qwib headed towards Earth. Operative had gone ahead in an Alliance shuttle with a small group of infiltrators, she was to make a round trip and then approach the Qwib Qwib in the pretence to meet the Qwib Qwib and escort her down to Admiralty Headquarters. As they neared closer, the Citadel loomed ahead to thier left as it shared Earths orbit with the Moon. The Citadel had been on the brink of destruction after the battle for Earth, it had been deemed to be structurally unstable and that any attempt to move the Citadel could result in the structural integrity collapsing. "Good" Tali thought, she watched as groups of frigates and cruisers patrolled around the system.

As the Qwib Qwib reached closer to Earth, an Alliance shuttle approached. "_Right on time Operative._" Tali headed down to the small docking area where the shuttle was now waiting. She made a detour on the way and popped into engineering, she typed a few commands into the main engineering console then fitted a transmitter hidden under it. She walked into the docking bay and boarded the shuttle where Operative was waiting in a Alliance uniform along with two disguised Cerberus infiltrators.

"It suit's you Operative" Tali sneered.

"Shut it!" Operative growled back at her. She wasn't used to people joking with her or mocking her, those that did, died shortly after. But Tali was The Illusive Mans new prized pet, for now she was untouchable.. but she could wait, one day her usefulness will be at a end. "And i'll have a clip with your name on it" She thought as she stroked her pistol.

The shuttle undocked from the ship and headed down into Earths atmosphere towards Alliance HQ. Tali double checked she had everything she needed, she hid her knife in a hidden pocket on one of her boots. There was no way she'd be able to smuggle a gun into Hacketts office so she'd need to either her hands or that knife to kill him.

"Ok quick review" Tali said. "When we land, you three will escort me to Admiral Hacketts office, you will then head down to the next floor and relieve the security detail. You will then loop the security feeds to the Admirals room." She paused as she felt sick again. "You will then signal me and I'll proceed to kill Hackett and hack the data we need. When I got that I'll head down to the shuttle bay where you will be waiting ready to collect me."

Operative gritted her teeth but didn't say anything, just nodded.

. . . . .

Shepard paced around Hacketts room, he'd been back for a few days now and had been on leave after the incident on Haestrom. But Hackett had called him up at the last minute to help discuss the situation with Tali to Zaal'Koris.

"How do you think he'll react?" Hackett asked.

Shepard sighed. "I'm not sure, not spoke with him since the war ended with the Geth.. I doubt he'll be happy that it took this long for the Quarians to find out."

"We'll have to show him that video feed you recovered, I doubt he'll believe she could be indoctrinated otherwise. What with thier weak immune systems, I wouldnt of thought a Quarian could survive the process."

"Talis strong.." He replied sadly.

"I cant say I know how you feel, but atleast you can take comfort in that her actions arn't her own."

A knock came at the door. "Come in." Hackett said.

The door opened and Zaal'Koris stepped into the office, he had been escorted by three Alliance personnel. He greeted Hackett when the door closed behind him, then froze when he saw Shepard.

"_Whats he doing here!" _Tali thought to herself taken completely by surprise. "Admiral, thank you for seeing me.. and Commander Shepard, I didnt expect to see you here." She said trying to regain her focus.

"Admiral Hackett invited me to intend, given that Tali is a close personal friend and a memeber of my crew." Shepard replied, Tali nodded at his reply.

"As your aware." Hackett started to say, "Tali went missing nearly a month ago now, she was kidnapped by Cerberus forces when they stole the Normandy."

Tali stopped listening as Hackett kept on talking, she scanned the room and saw the terminal she'd need to hack to get the data they needed. She started to pace the room, moving closer to them and the terminal.

"We found evidence while on Haestrom." Shepard started to add.

"What was you doing on Haestrom Commander?" Tali said interrupting him, she needed to buy time untill Operative sent the all clear. She also needed to figure out how she was going to get past both of them and get the data.

"As I had said Admiral, we were contacted by the Geth who picked up the Normandy entering the system." Hackett replied.

"And what evidence did you find?" Tali asked.

"We found a video recording.. of what Cerberus had been doing to Tali since they had kidnapped her, it showed them forcing indoctrination on her." Shepard managed to say.

"What?" Tali said, she was honestly taken aback. "_Thats ridiculous._" She thought to herself. "Don't be absurd, Quarians cant be indoctrinated. Our bodies wouldnt survive." Which was true she thought to herself, so no way could she be.

A voice that only she heard, came over her hidden comms device. "_Your all clear._" Operative said.

"We guessed you would think as much, and we don't blame you." Hackett said, "So if you follow us outside, we can get you a copy of that data."

"_Shit._" Tali thought, she had to think fast.

As the three of them headed towards the door, Tali knelt down to seeminly adjust her boot, Shepard and Hackett had both taken steps ahead of her. She pulled out the knife she had concealed and stood up fast, she moved quickly behind Hackett, swung her arm around his neck and brought the knife across his throat in one clean fast slash.

She turned her attention to Shepard as Hacketts body collapsed, the attack had completely caught him off guard, he reached his waist for his pistol and tried to take aim but he was too slow. Tali had moved in close and brought her knee right up into Shepards stomach, winding him and causing him to fall back. Tali picked up his pistol as he coughed on the floor, taking aim at his head.

" Zaal'Koris! Why!" Shepard coughed out.

Tali raised her hand to her mask, she clicked around the mouth and removed the distorter. "Keelah se'lai my love."

Shepard froze in shock, "Tali?"

"The one... and only.." She replied in her old seductive tone.

"Tali please! listen to me, this is not you... you're indoctrinated!" Shepard shouted.

"Oh please... don't give me that bullshit, just because I now serve a higher cause!"

"Cerberus? Harbinger? They are not higher causes!"

"You can't see the bigger picture can you? Everything we are doing, everything we will do.. We will bring this Galaxy to order! Our victory we mark a brilliant new beginning for every living thing!" She shouted back at him, then her tone changed and spoke in a more seductive way. "Join us.. Join me... we could bring in a new age together! Side by side."

Shepard couldn't believe what he was hearing, he couldn't believe just how deep had she sunk.. "Tali, thats crazy.. listen to yourself!"

Tali felt rejected. "No! You listen! If you get in my way again... I will kill you.." And with that, Tali smashed the pistol around the side of Shepards head, knocking him out cold. She looked down at him, she knelt down and stroked his face softly before getting up and heading over to the terminal. She began hacking, when she found the data they were looking for downloaded it to her omni-tool. When the download finished an alarm sounded, she had triggered a hidden security routine, "Bosh'tet!".

The door opened, before she could give anyone the chance to say or so anything, she turned on the spot and fired. Two guards dropped and she ran out the office, she could hear Alliance moving in on her, the only way she could go was up.

. . . . .

Operative was furious, with the alarms going it was going to be near impossiable to escape with the data. She tuned the Shuttles comms device to pick up news on what was going on, they had found out that the Quarian had killed the Admiral and was escaping on foot. "Fucking bitch!" Operative said to herslef as the shuttle took off and escaped.

. . . . .

Joker entered Hacketts office with Alliance forces and saw both Hackett dead and Shepard laying on the floor.

"Commander!" Joker shouted as he moved to help him up.

"Ugh" Shepard was all he managed to get out as he came round, he rubbed the side of his head which was in agony. "Wheres Tali?"

"Tali? Shes here?" Joker said

"She was disguised as Zaal'Koris.."

"Well they got someone cornered on the roof, it must be her".

"We need to get up there and stop her" Shepard said struggling.

. . . . .

Tali stood near the edge of the roof, she had ditched the pistol when it ran out of clips and now Alliance forces had her cornered. She had tried to contact Operative but got no reply, "Most likely she escaped while she could of.. I know I would of if I was her" Tali thought. She looked down, it was a long drop. More Alliance had came up onto the roof and with them was Shepard and Joker.

"Its over Tali." Shepard said, "You got nowhere to run now, just give it up."

She watched Shepard and was about to reply when a shot interrupted her. A sharp pain erupted in her shoulder, her hand moved to the wound and she looked down to see the blood on her fingers. She looked back up at who hard fired the shot.

It was Joker. "That one's for EDI." He said coldly.

She staggered back slowly, taking one last long look at Shepard before falling off the edge.


	10. Chapter 10

"Jump!" Came Operatives voice over Talis comm, she nearly didn't hear it over the gunshot. Tali staggered back while clutching her wound, looking at Joker then Shepard, she kept staggering back and allowed herself to fall from the edge, she heard Shepards voice shouting out to her as she began to fall through the air.

She landed on a hard metallic surface, she grunted as her back roared with pain, she heard the sound of a door slidding open and Operatives voice. "Get her in now! We need to leave!". Tali had landed on the roof of thier shuttle.

Tali dragged herself to the edge of the shuttle and slowly lowered herself with a great deal of pain and difficulty over the edge, where one of the Cerberus troops was waiting to help her inside. As she was helped aboard she looked up to the the edge of the buidling to see Shepard and other Alliance troops looking down and watching. Some were firing thier sidearms at the shuttle but the shots had no affect on the thick shuttle hull.

Tali collapsed into one of the backseats, she reached for the medical supplys and applied some medi-gel to her wound, she also used some bandages to temporary repair the suit puncture. "I'll be glad when I can get out of a dead mans suit and into my own." Tali grunted.

"You best have that data!" Operative snarled back at Tali, she was sitting in the shuttles pilot seat.

"Oh Operative, I didn't know you cared.. Ofcourse I have it you bosh'tet!" She replied in a pained voice.

"Hmph.. then lets get the fuck out of here!" She said turning back to the controls and taking the shuttle up into the atmosphere.

. . . . .

Shepard watched with the others as Tali was pulled into the Alliance shuttle and escaped up into the atmosphere, he turned round and headed over to Joker. With a fast swing he punched Joker, "What the hell was you playing at?" Shepard shouted at him. The Alliance personnel present didn't know what to do and just stood in thier places and watched nervously.

"Doing what was right! Commander think about it! All shes done, all you've killed people for far less!"

"None of them were Tali!"

"That dosn't matter anymore! The Tali we knew is gone."

Shepard moved in close to hit Joker again, but this time the Alliance personnel moved in to intervene and held them both back. A captain stepped forward, "Will you two control yourselfs!" He said in a stern voce.

"Yes Sir." Shepard said.

"Sorry sir." Joker replied

The captain sighed and activated his comms device. "This is Captain Price to Alliance Command, we have a maximum priority target. Engage the shuttle UT-47A Reg:001756 and the Quarian ship." Captain Price said checking the shuttles details, then looked at Shepard. "Use lethal force if necessary."

. . . . .

The shuttle rocked as another blast clipped the hull, Operative maneuvered the shuttle as they climbed the atmosphere. F-61 Trident fighters had closed in on them and were firing, they had no intrest of taking them alive, they were going for the kill. The Alliance had managed to get thier shuttles frequency and were demanding them to surrender or they'd be destroyed.

"This is Operative to the Normandy" She said yelling into her comms device, "We are heading for the extraction point, we need immediate evac!"

As they broke through the final layer of the atmosphere, she could see the Qwib Qwib. It was under attack from three Alliance ships; one cruiser and two frigates.

"Shit! That ship won't last long enough to cover our retreat." Operative said as they grew closer to the fighting. From the looks of it the Qwib Qwib had just been disabled, one of the frigates had maneuvered along side of it and were preparing a boarding procedure.

Tali struggled to move forward and into the seat next to Operative, "Don't worry, I left a little surprise on the Qwib Qwib." She raised her arm and started typing into her omni-tool, another blast rocked the rear of the ship. "Oh.. brace yourself" She said to everyone.

The transmitter aboard the Qwib Qwib that Tali had placed under the engineering console began transmitting commands she had left behind. It sent a surge throughout the ships systems and caused a overload to build up. The result was a blinding explosion that ripped the ship apart violently, taking the Alliance frigate with it.

"Now thats more like it!" Operative said with a cold smile. The resulting confusion allowed her to slip the shuttle past the other Alliance ships and put some distances between them. Yet the victory was short lived as several blasts impacted them, the fighters had stayed on thier tail and the other Alliance ships had changed course and were closing fast behind them.

"Were not going to make it" One of the Cerberus troops said.

"Shut it!" Operative shouted back at him, "_He was right although_" she thought to herself, there was no way they could outrun the Alliance ships. The shuttles emergency alarms started blaring as they took another critical hit.

Just then, Tali and Operative were blinded by a sharp blue beam that shot just over the shuttle. The beam impacted the Alliance cruiser violently, a series of explosions spread across its starboard side. Leaving it dead in the water and adrift. As Talis sight cleared she saw the source of where the beam had come from, it was Normandy heading towards them. It has snuck onto the scene with it's stealth systems engaged. A barrage of lasers from the Normandy GARDIANs followed, picking of the pursuing fighters. The other Alliance frigate had started to open fire on the Normandy, but it was no match for the Normandys superior defense and returned fire, sending a volleys of Javelin torpedoes at the frigate. It never stood a chance.

A a male voice came over the comm, "This is the Normandy, you're clear to dock." As the Normandy passed over them.

Operative maneuvered the shuttle into the hanger. Soon as the shuttle was safely inside, the Normandy turned back and headed at maximum speed towards the mass relay as Alliance reinforcements headed thier way from in the distance.

. . . . .

Shepard sat in a conference room with Ashley, Liara, Garrus, Captain Price even Joker was present, they had been instructed to wait there for a debriefing. No one had spoke since they arrived, the rest of the team sat in an awkward silence after hearing about the incident on the roof. Jondum Bau

Ashley broke the silence, "So Captain Price sir.. I hear you may be up for promotion to Rear Admiral."

"Thats correct Lieutenant Commander, I actually was waiting to have an appointment with Hackett later today to discuss my promotion." He replied, then sighed. "He was a good man, he'll be missed." Everyone nodded in agreement.

A knock came at the door then a salarian entered, it was Jondum Bau, a Spectre. "Gettings everyone" He said.

"Jondum!" Shepard said surprised.

"Good to see you again Shepard" Then turned to Ashley, "Spectre Williams" He nodded at her.

"What are you doing here?" Shepard asked.

"Important information I have." He spoke in a typical fast paced salarian tone. "As you are aware, Tali'Zorah hacked some data. Important data. Data only known to a handful of people." He paused a sec and walked to the head of the room. "Alliance and Council have decided you will need to know certain details to help in your mission."

"Mission?" Garrus asked. "You mean finding Tali?"

"Yes and no" Jondum said. "New mission I am to pass on to you, partly to find Tali'Zorah." He bit his lip and started to type into a console and brought up a view screen. "Data stolen, was regarding dark energy, in weaponized form."

"Whys that a big deal?" Liara asked. "Some weapons already use dark energy."

"That's right." Garrus added, "The Normandy is equipped with "Javelin Disruptor Torpedoes" that use it."

"True, true." Jondum admitted, "But not like this." He pulled up blueprints on the view screen of a large weapon. "Many years ago, experiments were made by the Council after The Krogan Rebellions. They weaponized dark energy into a main cannon, a cannon so large that it could only be fitted on a dreadnought class ship. The cannon itself ran the length of the ship. It was hoped that it could wipe out attacking fleets in one go if the council was threatened."

He then changed the image on the view screen to a dreadnought. "Only one was made, a prototype. During a field test in the then uninhabited Dholen system. The weapons trajectory.. was off. The beam hit the system sun. The effects were apparent right away as the star intensified"

"Err ok.. I don't see the threat" Joker said confused, "We've been to Haestrom.. yeah the sun's hot, and aging fast. But that's it." The others agreed with him, even Shepard forced a nod.

Jondum stared at Joker, "The weapon was only at 0.95% firing strength. Estimations showed that at full power, the weapon would of forced the star to go supernova then and there. The Council decided the weapon was a threat to everything and cancelled the project. The prototype and most the data was destroyed, only a small record was kept and given to races on the Council as a warning."

The room went silent, everyone stared at Jondum.

"And now this weapon is in the hands of Cerberus and Harbinger..." Shepard said stunned.

"That is... correct yes. The council wants you to find Cerberus and destroy the data and any prototypes they may be working on." He said. "There is, something else. Data that I feel is irrelevant to your mission, but.." Jondum was interrupted.

"But they need to be told." Came a voice from the door.

"Dr. Chakwas?" Shepard looked at her, "What are you doing here?"

"Commander." She nodded at Shepard and headed to the front of the room next to Jondum. "Like Jondum said, there is some other data you need to see." Jondum was shaking his head but didn't say anything. "This is something that untill recently, only I and Hackett knew.. but with his death, the information had to be shared. While I was passing this information on, we found something."

She started to type into the console, the view screen dissapeared and was replaced by a life size thermal holo of Hackett.

"A few years ago I diagnosed Hackett with a terminal cancer, but being the stubborn man he was, he wouldnt allow me to tell anyone or would he stop doing his duty. So instead hidden thermal scanners were fitted at the entrance to Hacketts room, so I could monitor his condition. These same scanners Tali'Zorah had to walk through."

She paused and typed into the console, Hacketts image was replaced by one of Tali. "I don't really know what to say.. I'm sorry Commander." Chakwas said softly.

"Is that?... By the goddess..." Liara gasped, the others had similar reactions.

"Impossible, yet evidence says otherwise." Jondum stated.

Shepard was the last to see what everyone was so shocked about, then he saw it as he studied the thermal holo.

Tali was pregnant.


	11. Chapter 11

Shepard was sitting in Dr. Chakwas office, he had just sent another message to Miranda Lawson, he'd been unable to reach her for some time now. He wasn't sure if he believed she was just laying low or if Cerberus had finally caught up to her, but she could be the only person who'd have the information he needed to locate Tali.

He had been unable to sleep after the revelation about Tali, he had been pacing in his room trying to work out just how on earth it could be possible, he had also tried to search the extranet for any kind of information but had no luck, the only logical conclusion that he could come to was that it wasn't his. The idea was tearing him apart and decided to come see Dr. Chakwas to see if she could shed any light on it.

"Dr Chakwas.. is there anything you can tell me?" Shepard asked, his voice was full of sadness.

"Commander.. I really don't know what to say, I know very little on Quarian biology.. and what I do know is that it is that it's biologically impossible." Chakwas said sighing.

"So, it can't be mine then?... Someone else must of got her pregnant..." He struggled to get them words out, the idea made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Actually.. There is something, I have Talis blood test results here." She pulled out a data log from her desk. "A blood sample was collected from the roof were Mr Moreau had shot her. With some help I ran some tests on the sample and was able to determine a few facts." She handed the data log to Shepard.

"I don't know what this all means?" Shepard asked puzzled after scanning through it with his eyes.

Chakwas sighed, "In simply terms I matched your DNA to the traces in Talis blood. It's your child."

Shepards heart skipped a beat, he sudden felt very warm on the inside. "You could find that out from a small sample?"

"Science can be a wonderful thing Commander." She gave him a little smile. "There is something else.. I found some.. genetic anomalies, also in her blood. But without further comparison to other Quarians, I am unable to tell you if thats normal for her race or if they are a factor that contributes to her current state. Give me more time and I'll get back to you as soon as I have news."

"Thank you Dr. Chakwas, you have been a big help." Shepard said, finding himself smiling for the first time in weeks.

"Anytime Commander, I also might add, that she could of just adapted to contact with you, could be as simple as that." She replied, "Now try get some rest."

"I will, thank you Karin."

He left the her office and was heading back to his room, her last words kept playing in his head. "_Adapted to contact with you_." She had said. He stopped in his tracks as he remembered some things Tali had once said to him. "_Our bodies carried the seeds that spread the desert grass... My system had adapted. No more negative reactions to you anymore. That's how we survive... to inter-species contact..."_ Could she of just adapted to him? It was a small hope, one that Shepard was happy to cling to.

"Life will find a way." He said quietly to himself, remembering an old Earth saying.

. . . . .

Tali woke up yet again in pain, every part of her ached, she had a strong headache, her sinuses were blocked, she had a sore throat, she was running a fever and onto of all that she felt sick to her stomach. Yet again. She wanted to blame her injuries from the last week, but any infections she had got from that were long gone. "_Bosh'tet!_" She thought to herself as she was forced to get up and run to her personal rest room. Her mask was laying next to the wash basin as her head hung over it, waiting for the feeling of nausea to pass. She looked at herself in the mirrior "Keelah.. I look half dead." She said to herself while she rinsed her face, her eyes were a unsually bright sharp blue. Her hand moved to her stomach as she felt a small strange kicking sensation, and for a split second. Her eyes reverted back to their original state.

. . . . .

The Illusive Man was studying a holo projection of the Dark Energy Dreadnought while smoking, he had a smirk on his face as he reviewed the test data.

"It's a impressive feat of technology, now that it's in the right hands. We can begin to shape the future." The Illusive Man said.

"_This weapon will bring the chaos under control. Order will be restored_." Harbinger spoke through The Illusive Mans lips.

"The Alliance will now know of our plans, and so will the Council." He replied, pausing to smoke. "No doubt they will send Shepard to find and stop us."

"_Shepard is becoming less of a threat. The Quarian is wearing down his resolve. Every action she takes against them for us, is a blow to his being."_

"Ah yes, Miss Tali'Zorah, one of Shepards biggest strengths had always been his friends and the support they gave, a strength that is now fading fast. When the final hour comes, he will stand alone in the darkness and that will be Tali'Zorahs doing." He paused to smoke for a second. "The Alliance will of surely uncovered her 'condition' from the scanners." The Illusive Man had learnt from his extensive information network about Admiral Hacketts health issues, it presented the perfect opportunity to expose Tali'Zorahs condition. "Shepard will be torn in half." He said with a evil smirk.

"_That unborn child will be a valuable asset in breaking Shepard. Only when the champion of chaos is a broken shell will order be able to follow."_

"Agreed, Shepard has always been one to choke on the hard choices, he will not be able to bring himself to harm Tali'Zorah because of it. His compassion for her and the child will be his undoing"

While the child was undoubtedly a valuable asset, It still didnt stop that fact that The Illusive Man regarded it as an abomination against human purity. When Operative had "recovered" Tali'Zorah from Shepard, Harbinger had discovered the embryo after a detailed genetic examination into how they would keep her alive, to survive the indoctrination process. The embryo was weak and wasn't going to last, Tali's body and DNA were rejecting the incompatible strands.

Harbinger had injected her with a careful balance of levo-proteins and used Reaper nano-probes to create a symbiotic harmony, in which allowed the embryo to grow and thrive. It was a smaller and less demanding process then that used to create Brutes. But that was not the reason behind his contempt, the embryo had survived naturally for as long as it did, a few more years of adaptation and this could become a natural process galaxy wide. It will be a dark day for humanity when cross species offspring became a natural part of life. He looked back at the holo of the Dreadnought "That day and many others, will never come." He smirked then turned as he heard two sets of foot steps approach him. It was Tali'Zorah and Operative.

"You wanted to see use sir?" Tali asked.

"Yes, I have assignments for you both." He replied, "Its time to pull all our resources, the remaining cells will become one to work on our final goal. Once it's been started the Dreadnought will be too large to conceal in any known system." He changed the holo image to show the Omega-4 Relay "Which is why construction past the initial stage will continue beyond the Omega-4 Relay." He turned to Tali. "Tali'Zorah, you will work with Harbinger and our engineers to alter the safety protocols to only accept a new IFF frequency. This will make the old reaper IFF redundant and any ships that try use it will fall into the black hole."

"Consider it done" Tali nodded.

"After that is done you'll be.. tying up some loose ends. Operative, I want you to regulate the flow of information regarding Cerberus and the Omega system. Also once anyone working on the Dreadnought usefulness comes to a end, I want you to ensure their silence." The Illusive Man added.

"Yes Sir." Operative replied with a smile.

"There is, one matter I wish to discuss Tali'Zorah." His voice went cold. "Why didn't you kill Shepard when you had the chance? Operative has informed me he was present in Hacketts office before the feed was looped."

Tali froze for a second, she didn't know why. Something had held her back. "I didn't believe it was his time to die.. I want him to see the order brought to the chaos before he dies." She said, she didn't know if this was a lie or the truth.

The Illusive Man went quiet for a few moments, pausing to have a smoke. "Very well. This meeting is over, you both have your roles to play. Tali'Zorah a shuttle is waiting to take you to the Dreadnought.

"Yes sir." She nodded and left the room.

"Keep an eye on her." He said to Operative.

. . . . .

A few weeks had past since Hacketts death, Shepard and the rest of his team had just attended a memorial service in his honor. Other officials were present including the now Rear-Admiral Price and Major Coats, even the Council had been present.

"This is a dark day for not just the Alliance, but the galaxy too" Garrus said to the group, "He was a fine man."

"We've lost alot of good people recently.." Liara added sadly.

"Yeah and we all know whos to blame for that" Joker spat. Shepard turned to look at him, knowing he meant Tali.

"Nows not the time Joker" Garrus said.

"Shes not to blame! If you want to blame someone, blame The Illusive Man, blame Harbinger!" Shepard said angrily.

"What about blaming you, _Commander!_ Had you had let me stop her on Haestrom none of this would of happened!" Joker snapped back, "I hope someone can finish the job I started."

"Joker! How can you say that knowing shes carrying?" Liara said mortified.

"Enough Joker! Things arn't that simple and you know it." Garrus said stepping between Shepard and Joker before another fight could break out. Everyones conflicting views were driving them apart.

"Anyone that trys to harm her will have to deal with me! When we find her, we're taking her alive! We have to help her!" Shepard shouted past Garrus.

"Commander.." Ashley spoke up "Shepard, I won't be able to help you, the Council has sent me on a mission of my own." She sighed and looked away. "They've asked me to find and kill Tali."

Shepard stopped to look at her. "What? You cant!"

"Shepard, Tali is like a little sister to me and I could of never hurted her before.. but the Council don't believe she can be saved from her indoctrination, who she was... is gone.. Im sorry, you're my Commander and my friend, but I am also a Spectre and I have to take the orders the Council give me above all else." She said sadly. "I just hope you can get to her before I do.."

And with that Ashley walked away, on her mission to hunt down Tali'Zorah and kill her.


	12. Chapter 12

It had been a few weeks since Hacketts service and Shepard was sitting in his room, he was sitting at his desk staring at a holo image of Tali pregnant while nursing a glass of Thessia Red, drinking while off-duty had become Shepards biggest hobby recently. Despite how things were currently, the idea and thought of him having a child was a small ray of hope. A beep came from his terminal, he sighed, he rathered he was alone at the moment. He activated his terminal, the view screen showed a familiar face. Miranda.

"Commander." Miranda said with a smile.

"Miranda? I've been trying to get ahold of you for weeks" Shepard said

"Yes I know, sorry. I've been having to lay low with Oriana. Cerberus had stepped up thier attempts to locate us untill recently, it seems to have died down or they have given up. Is there something you needed?" She asked.

"I need to find where Cerberus main base of operations are now." Shepard then filled Miranda in on the events of the past couple months nearly.

"The Illusive Man has really lost it now.. I know he liked to push the extreme in the past, but this is nothing short of madness... And I'm sorry to hear about Tali. I know how fond of her you are." Her voice was a mixture of shock and sadness.

"Thanks... is there anything you know that may help?"

"Hmm.. I'll have to do some digging, but what I have found out recently is that every Cerberus cell has been brought together and now I know why. As for Operative, shes a vindictive sadist bitch and I wouldnt be surprised is she was The Illusive Mans daughter, she always knows where he is, but she would die before she ever told anyone." She paused and raised her hand to her mouth as she usually did when she was thinking. "According to some manifests I did stumble apon a few days ago, Cerberus have been transporting massive amounts of ship building materials, maybe I can find out where they headed... I'll have to get back to you on this Shepard, maybe some old ex Cerberus contacts will have information for me."

"Thank you Miranda, if you can find out, it will be a big help."

"The amount of times you've helped me out, I owe this to you, and Tali. Stay strong Shepard." She said with a smile before the video feed ended.

With the hope of a lead, Shepard put down his glass and headed over to his bed, he decided to try get some rest.

. . . . .

Tali was aboard one of the many Cerberus cruisers that were patrolling around the system, she had been given one of the officers quarters so she could carry out her work and oversee operations. Like all of the ships The Illusive Man had placed her on, a decontamination unit had been added by the door to her room so she could carry out suit repairs and other tasks safely. She had not long been awake, she found herself to be sleepy alot more recently and sometimes found herself taking naps during the day if she wasn't busy.

She finished putting on her black suit and headed over towards the window. Looking out she could see the dreadnought, construction was well under way. The colossal hull was already about a third of the way complete, but given the amount of debris and salvage present in this region of space, it was easy to see why process had been steaming ahead. She didnt dream she'd ever see a ship so big, at over 3 kilometers in length it easily dwarfed any known ship in the Galaxy, even Sovereign would of been shadowed by it.

The ship itself looked like a cross between the Destiny Ascension and a Geth Dreadnought, it had large bulky oblong head which contained the bridge, that was attached to the massive torso via a 'neck'. This 'neck' would rise up when the main cannon was ready to fire, bringing the bridge up to sit over the front of the torso like a observation platform. The rear of the ship had 4 large 'wings' like the Ascension, but unlike the Ascension, these wings were unevenly spaced with the starboard wings being closer to each other then they were to the port wings.

She couldnt help but feel awe everytime she looked apon it, The Illusive Man had pulled together every single resource at his disposal to make this happen as fast as he could, and with him overseeing the project, no one dared to slack. "Or they'd end up there" Tali thought as she looked towards the event horizon. A few labourer ships had already found their way floating into the abyss, but with the amount of additional labour they were getting from Aria T'Loak. They could afford to make examples, still, Tali felt a pang of pity whenever she saw a ship head for the black hole, she couldn't imagine a worse fate.

A beep from her terminal drew her away from the awe inspiring sight, she typed into the terminal and brought up a video feed from The Illusive Man.

"_Tali'Zorah,_ I hope I didn't bother you." He said sarcastically.

"No sir, I was just watching construction."

"_It is a glorious sight. But thats not why I contacted you. It would seem a 'old friend' is planning to supply information about our plans to Shepard. I want you to make sure it dosnt happen._"

"It will be my pleasure."

. . . . .

A few days after Mirandas message she had contacted him again, she wanted him to meet her at the Eternity Bar on Illium.

Illium was already getting back to its busy self, alot of rebuidling had been going on in the past months. New apartment blocks had replaced the old and would soon be ready to provide homes for the countless left homeless after the war with the Reapers. The bazaar and shipping districts had also been fully refurbished, providing ruthless merchants the chances to exploit unexpecting off worlders for all they had, while contractors picked up those that had been 'cleaned out' and enrolled them in work that anyway else in the galaxy would be considered illegal and inhumane. Illium was back to normal.

Shepard had just arrived the district containing the Eternity Bar, the new apartments soared around him, he moved through the crowds towards the bar, being stopped every few minutes by merchants trying to sell him goods, which had ranged from "Red Sand" to "Salarian Livers". When he finally made it into the bar, he scanned the area for Miranda but she was no where to be seen. Shepard decided he would wait by the bar so he could order a drink.

"What can I do for you handsome?" A Asari bartender asked?

"I'll have a Serrice Ice Brandy." Shepard said, thanking the bartender as she passed him one.

He watched the people in the bar as he sat having his drink, everyone had returned to their lives, going about their business as nothing had happened. They had come here to forget everything and everyone they had lost, and right now, Shepard wanted to do the same thing as he got his drink topped up everytime he was finished.

"I'd offer to buy you another one Commander, but you seem to have had your fair share already." Mirandas voice came.

"Miranda? What took you?" Shepard replied, feeling intoxicated.

"I had... some business to wrap up. This way, lets find somewhere quieter... and you look like you could do with the air."

She led Shepard outside the bar and into a empty side passage not far of.

"How much have you had?" Miranda said in a strict tone, her voice turning to worry. "I've never seen you like this.."

"I'll be fine.. Just was reflecting." Shepard sighed.

"Hmmm.. I can imagine you have alot on your mind.. well hopefully I can help you. Do you remember Ish the salarian? An old contact we bumped into on Omega?"

"Yeah I remember, we helped him out with some trouble."

"Yes well, he didn't lay low for very long, he was soon back up to his old tricks again on Omega. For a very hefty price, I was able to get some information from him." She paused for a second. "Did you hear about Cerberus seizing control of Omega during the war with the Reapers?"

"Yeah Aria asked for some help with that, she wanted all the merc groups under her rule, they would then fight the Reapers. I heard after the fighting she took Omega back?"

"Oh she did. Without a fight."

"What? When I saw Aria, she wanted blood."

"She did. Yet supposedly Cerberus just abandoned Omega, leaving way for Aria to resume her operations there. But from what I learnt from Ish, is that Cerberus never left. Instead they gave Omega to Aria aswell as more credits then even she could dream of."

"And what did Cerberus get out of that deal?"

"A large base of Operations aboard Omega... and control of the Omega-4 Relay."

"Omega-4 Relay? Thats it! Thats where Tali is, thats where Harbinger and The Illusive Man are hiding!" Shepard said with a sudden bolt hope.

"It would seem so.. but Shepard.. the IFF..." Miranda paused.

Miranda stood silent, her eyes had gone wide with shock, her skin as pale as snow. Blood started to trickle from her lips, her hands moved over her chest, the clear white top she had on grew red from the centre, spreading outwards. She started to fall forwards, Shepard moved to catch her in his arms, turning her onto her back.

"Miranda! Miranda stay with me!" He shouted, looking around and calling for help, but no one heard or came."

"Shep... I..." Miranda coughed, the blood flowing fast from her lips.

"Miranda hang in there! You'll be ok!"

Miranda laughed and coughed. "I.. I'm not stupid... I kno... know this is the end... Shep..ard.. watch over.. Oriana..."

Her hand tilted back, Shepard ran his hand over her eyes. She was gone. Shepard looked around to see where the shot came from, across the alley in one of the new apartment windows, he saw the glimmer of a scope. Shepard laid Miranda gently to the floor, he stumbled as he tried to stand, still feeling heavily intoxicated. But with a rush of adrenaline he forced himself to stand and ran towards the apartments.

. . . . .

"Keelah se'lai you bosh'tet" Tali said after she had fired the rifle. She watched the scene through the scope of her rifle, making sure the job was done, then she noticed Shepard had looked right at her then started to run towards the building. "_Bosh'tet!_" She thought to herself. She panicked and quickly gathered some of her stuff up, making a grab for her mask that she had removed so she could have a better feel of the rifle and scope. She fastened it in haste.

She didn't know if it was the panic, thrill or adrenaline from the situation but something had caused her to have another large cramp in her stomach followed by the now usual 'kicking' sensations that came over her now and then, "Not now!" She hissed to herself, taking several moments to pull herself together.

Tali rushed out of the room and headed down the corridor, as she reached the end, the doors bursted open. It was Shepard.

"Tali!" He shouted when he saw it was her.

She had delayed too long and had allowed him to catch her up. He moved towards her, she went to pull out her weapon only to realize she had left it behind in the rush. She spun on the spot and made a run for it towards the room she had been using. Shepard chased after her, despite being intoxicated, he was faster and tackled her to the ground from behind.

"Get off me you little Bosh'tet!" Tali said struggling as he had her pined down. Her mask felt loose from the impact."

"Tali, your coming with me! Im taking you to get help!" Shepard said trying to reason with her as.

Tali wriggled and twisted, getting herself onto her back. Her eyes locked with Shepards and lifted her head up fast, headbutting him yet he still held her firm. The impact knocked of her poorly fastened mask. Tali felt his grip loosen slightly as her face was revealed to him, she took advantage of the situation and brought her knee up hard between his legs.

Shepard let out a cry of pain and briefly let Tali go. She scurried away and tried to get to her feet, but Shepard wasn't about to let her go so easy. He quickly regained himself as he got to his feet and made a grab for Talis arm. He pulled her close towards him then up against the corridor wall. They were both panting fast and again thier eyes locked, this time Tali didn't feel like trying to get away, she felt deep urges and feelings surfacing at an uncontrollable rate, like they had been sealed away and only just let free. Time seemed to grind to a halt, her heart was beating faster then she had ever felt before, she knew what she wanted, what she needed.

She kissed him.


	13. Chapter 13

Shepards world froze as Talis lips brushed against his, he was holding her up against the wall pressing against her shoulders. He felt himself wanting to kiss her back but he knew he couldn't let himself give in to this, no matter how much he wanted, yet for some reason, maybe it was the amount of drink he had or maybe it was a deeper desire but he still found himself taking the time to enjoy the kiss while slowly loosening his grip.

Tali broke away from the kiss slowly and peered into his eyes, she could she the reflection of her eyes in his, they were a deep blue, yet unusally dim. But she didn't care what it meant, she had way more important things on her mind. She moved in and kissed Shepard passionately, their lips opened up and their tongues danced together. She felt Shepards hands move down from her shoulders and onto the tight outline of where her breasts were under the suit, she moaned softly as she felt him apply pressure to them. She hooked one of her legs up around his waist, her arms moving up and around his neck, pulling herself up onto him and wrapping her other leg around him as his hands moved to support her weight.

Shepard pulled away from the kissing as he carried Tali towards and into the room she had been using, his mind was racing, he knew this was wrong, yet at the same time it felt so right. For the moment he could pretend nothing had happened and that they were back to how they used to be, something he had been wishing every moment of every day since she had been stolen from him. He cleared the surface of a dresser that was near the door, brushing everything to the floor as sat her on it, she released him from her grip as he moved to close the door. Her hands moved to her neck where she unfastened the rest of her hood and removed it along with her neck brace, allowing her hair to tumble out onto her shoulders.

Shepard turned to look at her after the door was locked, as he watched he noticed her new suit had more changes from her old one then just the colour. Unlike her old one where each segment had to be removed individually, this one was allowing Tali to remove entire portions of her suit in one go. He moved back towards her as the last upper part of her suit fell to the floor.

"So.. what actually did you.. plan to do with me once you had me apprehended?" Tali asked Shepard seductively as he stood before her.

"To bind you and take you into custody.." Shepard asked, speaking honestly.

"Well... you bosh'tet..." She pulled him close and nipped his neck. "I may... let you bind me.."

Shepards hands moved over body and he kissed her, caressing her bare skin and breasts. Tali stretched her body and arched her back as his mouth moved down from her lips and over her neck, then her chest and breasts. She let out as small moan as her hands gripped his head slightly, holding him close. Her mind and body was a battlefield of emotions, it felt like she was waging war against herself on the inside and she had no idea why, she felt so confused, all she knew was what the loudest voice was telling her, she wanted this more then anything as she let out another moan.

She felt his arms and body move to scoop hers up, she tightened her arms around him as he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. He laied her out down on the bed then stood at the foot of it.

"If you even consider... wearing that armour to bed..." She said while her breathing got heavier. His only reply was a smile as he began to remove it, her hands moved to her waist where she undid a series of clips, the leggings of her suit then split down the sides. She slowly slid her legs out and with a flick, kicked off her boots.

Her body shivered with anticipation, Shepard was now fully undressed and had moved over her. His skin and brushing against her body, they shared a long passionate kiss, she wrapped her legs around his waist. "Yes.. definitely want this..." She thought to herself as she pulled him in close with her legs, she cried out in ecstasy, arching her body towards him as they become one.

. . . . .

Shepard was fast asleep as Tali laied there looking at him, "_What have I done... Whats wrong with me?_" She asked herself, she slipped out of the bed and started to put her suit back on. The thrill of the last few hours had started to fade away and instead she was left with an immense amount of confusion. Her feelings for the man next to her were divided, half of her hated him and believed him to be her enemy. The other half believed the complete opposite, she sighed, she had to get away and think. She had finished putting most of her suit on when she saw a pistol laying on the floor, she bend down to pick it up then slowly aimed it at Shepard. "_I could end it now._" She told herself, but the confusion and the war going on inside her was keeping her from making a choice either way. She let out another sigh then holstered the gun as she headed out the room, she gave him one last backwards glance and smiled.

Shepard felt a chill rundown his spine, a cold breeze had entered the room. He woke up and turned over in the bed, laying his arm across the other side, only to feel a empty space. He sat up fast, a painful ache spread throughout his head, he looked around the room. Tali had gone.

. . . . .

Shepard had been back on Earth for a few days and was just finishing up a debriefing with Rear Admiral Price.

"So the Omega system? I'll dispatch the First fleet there to watch the relays and see if we catch anything passing through." Price said.

"Sir if that Dreadnought does turn up, it will need more then a single fleet to take out." Shepard replied.

"I agree, but I cant send all our forces and leave the core Alliance worlds unguarded on a whim. But they can still disrupt Cerberus operations that may pass through." Price paused. "Did you find the shooter?"

"No sir." Shepard lied. "They had escaped by the time I got there."

A knock came at Price's door followed by Garrus entering the room. "You wished to see me Price?"

"Ah Garrus yes. You can stay for this if you like Shepard, I'm sure Garrus wouldn't mind. I've had a message from Palaven, they are requesting your presence."

"What? Why?" Garrus asked.

"From what they told me, Primarch Victus has been taken ill and is unfit for duty. So they are looking for his successor"

"No, no way!" Garrus said in a shocked tone.

"Oh I told you this day would come! Primarch..." Shepard began to laugh.

"Dont you even finish that sentence Shepard." Replying in an unamused tone.

"I'm sorry Primarch."

"Oh you bastard."

Price couldn't help but chuckle, it was good to see people be able to try have a laugh even when situations elsewhere seemed dire. "Right well, there's a Turian cruiser in orbit ready to take you, and i'll have that fleet sent to Omega right away."

"Yes sir." They had both replied as they headed out, they didnt get far before Garrus stopped and turned to Shepard.

"Shepard, whatever happens on Palaven, remember. Vakarian always has your back."

"I know Garrus, and thank you. You've always been a good friend, you've been there all the way"

"Well someone needs to make up for your poor aim." They both laughed. "Come on, lets hit the bar one last time, Im buying."

. . . . .

A Geth mining transport was heading towards the mass relay, it was part of a small convoy heading towards Rannoch that was transporting raw ore, which would be used to help build homes for the Quarians. A large anomaly had just been detected ahead of the convoy which had just entered the system, one by one, the other transports started to go dark untill it was the only transport left. It had a split second to send a distress signal before a explosion ripped through the ship, destroying it.

"This is like shooting fish in a barrel." Laughed a Cerberus officer, sitting at a console on the bridge of the Dreadnought. The Dark Energy Dreadnought had just entered the Dholen system, the near complete ship had been brought here for a field test of the weapon systems before it could be completed.

The Illusive Man was sitting in the command chair in the middle of the bridge. "This will be a fitting test, it was here that the true potential of this weapon was uncovered, and it's here it's full potential will be tried." He paused as he lit a new cigarette and had a smoke. "Tali'Zorah, start pre-firing preparations."

"Yes sir." She turned to look at the console she was standing infront of and started to type commands into it. An alarm started to sound and a VI voice spoke over the intercom.

_"Pre-firing preparations ares in effect. Stage 1 is comencing. Platforms too and from the bridge will enter lockdown after they have reached there final destination._" The VI stated.

Tali looked behind, she watched as the bridge doors opened and two technicians hurried off the platform, one of them headed to a terminal by the door and locked it down.

"_Stage 1 is complete, bridge and mobile platforms have been locked down._" The VI said. Tali looked back down at her console and typed in more commands. She felt the bridge move under her. "_Stage 2 is underway. Bridge relocating to observational position._"

There was a loud grinding noise that moved from the back of the bridge and to slowly under them as the bridge was raised above the bulk of the ship. When it came to a halt, there was a loud hiss followed by the VIs voice.

_"Stage 2 is complete. Pre-firing preparations have been completed."_

The Illusive Man took another smoke. "Power up the Dark Energy Cannon."

Operative and Tali both nodded at him and worked at their stations, red lights lit up over 12 consoles, 6 on the left and 6 on the right. The Cerberus officers at those console began working away, 1 by 1 the lights started to go green. "Dark energy generator 4 online." One said after her light turned green, "Dark energy generator 11 online." Spoke another officer.

"_All Dark Energy generators are online. Dark Energy Cannon is primmed."_ Came the VIs voice.

"Opening cannon bulk head doors, acquiring target" Operative said as a large view screen came up of Dholens system star.

"Bringing dark energy shield barrier emitters online." Tali spoke in a fast tone.

There was a pause, the only sound came from the alarms still sounding as The Illusive Man took a moment to smoke. "Fire."

Operative entered the command. They all watched up at the view screen as they felt a deep rumble approach from the rear of the ship, they felt it pass under them. A paused followed. Then a intense dark violet beam impacted the star on the view screen. The effects were immediately apparent as the star began to swell, it crackled with the effects of dark energy, bright violet solar flares erupted from the skin of the sun. As the star swelled it changed from an intense yellow to a deep orange, within seconds the star was already twenty times larger. They watched as the first planet, Gotha, was consumed by the growing star. Violet cracks started to appear and spread fast as the star stopped swelling, then without warning, the star went supernova.

A blinding wave of energy sped throughout the system in all directions, Charoum was ripped to shreads as the wave passed through it. Tali looked on, feeling a great deal of pain and sadness as Haestrom then vaporised before her eyes.

"_All hands brace for impact in, 5... 4... 3... 2... 1._" Came the VIs voice.

Then the wave hit them. The dreadnought vibrated viciously knocking alot of the bridge crew off their feet, a console blew killing its operator. "_Shields down to 70%... 55%... 30%... 22%... 21%... Shields holding at 21%._" The VI said.

"The wave has passed, the ship was largely unaffected, some systems have taken minor damage." Operative said as she checked system data.

"Mass relay seems to be undamaged also." Tali added.

"Good, then I would say this test has been a success. Tali'Zorah, work on ways to strengthen the shields. Operative, take us back to Omega." He smiled to himself as he took another smoke, looking on at the devastation.

. . . . .

"_Shepard."_ Came Prices voice over the intercom in Shepards room.

He walked over to it. "Price? Is there something I can do for you sir?" Shepard replied.

_"A Geth transport sent a distress call not too long ago, it came from the Dholen system. I believe you've had recent encounters there, so I'd like you and your team to go with the SSV Trafalgar and scout the system. You'll be the commanding officer onboard, it will be leaving in 30 minutes."_

"Yes sir, i'll be right there."

. . . . .

Joker was at the helm of the Trafalgar, Liara was sitting in the co-pilots seat and Shepard was standing behind them both.

Joker broke the silence which was a shock to Shepard, they had barely spoken since EDI's death. "Do you think it could be Cerberus again commander?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure what intrest Cerberus could still have with the Dholen system. But it does seem likely." He replied, happy for the silence to be broken.

"Ok were entering the system now and... Holy shit..." He nearly fell out of his chair.

"By the goddess..." Liara gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth.

Shepard was speechless, he looked at the view screen. The system was gone, its star, the planets. Only two things were left in the system, a supernova remnant which lit up the system in a varity of colours and at the heart of it was a tiny white neutron star. It was a beautiful sight, but it was also a sight that filling him with dread because it could mean only one thing. The Dark Energy Dreadnought had been finished.

It took a few minutes for Joker to notice they had an incoming message "Patching it through" he said.

"_Shepard, we've had a priority one message from the First fleet. They have engaged the Dark Energy Dreadnought." _Price stated in a concerned tone.

. . . . .

The SSV Hawking the new flagship of the First fleet, it was doing its patrol of the Omega system, the carrier class ship flew at the centre of a defensive formation, frigates and cruisers littered the area around it. Admiral Fisher was the commanding officer of both the Hawking and the First fleet.

"Sir?" Came one of the officers on the bridge.

"Yes lieutenant?" Replied Fisher.

"We have something on scanners, it just entered the system.. its big." The lieutenant brought it up on the view screen. "Sir the VI is registering it as a Priority One!"

"Battlestations everyone!" An alarm started to sound as he activated a comm's device. "_This is Admiral Fisher to the First Fleet, Priority One has entered the system. Engage at will! I repeat, engage at will!_" He then turned to the lieutenant, "Send a message to the Alliance, tell them we have engaged the Dreadnought."

Fighters poured out of the hangers of the Hawking and took point ahead of the fleet, leading the assault on the dreadnought with the cruisers and frigates in tow. A barrage of firepower came from the first fleet, blasts from Thanix cannons and torpedos lit up the area around the dreadnought, covering it in a bright blue aura.

"Sir it's barely being phased! Its ignoring the attacks and heading straight for the Omega-4 relay." The lieutenant said.

"I'm not detecting any weapons fire coming from the dreadnought, and the ship seems to have have sustained previous damage. The weapon systems could be down." Another officer spoke up.

The dreadnought came within range of the relay then sped off towards the core. The First fleet broke from the chase.

"_All ships, bring the IFFs online, we won't let him run and hide." _Fisher broadcasted to the fleet, and with that the fleet followed through the mass relay.

The Hawking was the last to enter the galactic core, Fisher found the fleet in disarray as some ships were ripped apart by the gravitational pull of the black hole, others headed straight for it. The Hawking started to buckle under the pull of the black hole and headed on a direct course for the heart of it.

"All systems offline! Were heading straight for the black hole! The IFF didn't work!" cried out the lieutenant. The bridge crew were frantically trying to regain control of the ship but Fisher knew it was no use and sent out his last message.

_"This is the SSV Hawking to Alliance Command, First fleet has been lost, the IFFs don't work any longer! Do not send any ships through the Omega-4 relay! I repeat, do not use the Omega-4 relay!_"


	14. Chapter 14

Tali was laying on her bed looking up at the ceiling, she spent most of her time recently resting and thinking, when she wasnt busy with her duties. She was reflecting on past events and mainly on what happened at Illium, she kept thinking about the night she had spent with Shepard, the feelings and the desires. Tali couldn't help but smile to herself, the memories left a warm feeling deep inside her, yet a deep sadness also accompanied those warm feelings and a great deal of confusion. She couldn't explain her actions to herself, she knew what was at stake, the fate of the galaxy and the end to the chaos. Or atleast thats what she had once believed, even that now was unclear to her.

Her actions, her beliefs and her feelings, were only part of the confusion she felt. The other thing that bothered Tali was the constant illness and the feeling in her belly, she recently laughed at herself when she came to the mad conclusion that she could be pregnant. But seeing as she never had sexual relations with another Quarian, she knew it was impossible. She did ask a few times for a medical checkup, but for some reason The Illusive Man kept turning down her request.

She sat up as a voice came over her comm device. "_Tali'Zorah, The Illusive Man wishes to speak with you." _ It was Operative. Every recent meeting with The Illusive Man filled her with dread, she worried he would sense her doubt and find out about her actions. She got up off the bed and hurried to go see him.

When she got to his operations room, he was sitting in his usual chair having a smoke, while Operative stood by him, they watched her as she entered.

"Ah Tali'Zorah, I have a new job for you." He blurted out without a hello, "Its come to our attention that after the Alliance learnt that their IFFs no longer worked, they set their best agents to find a way around it. One of them is closer then she thinks. So... I want you to head to the Alliance Prothean research facility and kill Dr. Liara T'Soni."

"Sir? Erm.. How will I get to Mars? The Alliance would of greatly improved secruity in the Sol system." Tali said with concern.

"Operative will help you with that." He didn't seem too pleased about her question.

"We have a civilian infiltrator who works at the facility. He will collect you from the nearby system and take you to Mars and back." Operative stated coldly.

"After you have finished your mission and left the Sol system. I want you to head to Horizon, its been for the best part, abandoned. I want you to recover the remaining data." The Illusive Man then added.

"Sir... Yes sir.." She replied hesitantly and left after The Illusive Man dismissed her.

When Tali was gone The Illusive Man turned to Operative. "Operative, I want you to have Tali'Zorahs location on Horizon leaked to the Council. I believe Spectre Williams is on a mission to hunt down Tali'Zorah."

"Sir?" Operative was slightly confused about the request.

"Tali'Zorahs usefulness will soon be reaching its end. It makes no difference to me which of them survives that encounter. Should Tali'Zorah survive then we'll carry on making use of her, then dispose of her when the time comes."

"It will be my pleasure." She replied with a grin.

. . . . .

"I don't get why we are waiting?" Shepard shouted angrily "Sir!" Shepard was in Price's office pacing up and down before his desk.

"Shepard I understand you're upset but..." Price said only to be cut off.

"Upset dosn't cover it! You havn't seen what they did to the Dholen system! You havn't seen what they are now capable of!.. Sir" Shepard carried on shouting.

"Oh, the reality has finally dawned on you has it?" Price shouted back as he started to get angry himself.

"Whats that meant to mean?"

"You've been off you're game! You've become incompetent! Most of you're crew and friends have also noticed it, I lost alot of friends when the First fleet was wiped out, your not the only one whos upset!" Price then sighed. "Look I won't say I can imagine what you are going through, to have a loved one turned against you, against their will. And I do appreciate your willingness to take the fight to them."

Price paused for a second before carrying on. "But without a new way to go through the Omega-4 relay safely, we can't do much. The Alliance has got some of the best people working on that, including your friend Dr. T'Soni."

"What about Omega station? If there is a Cerberus base there. There could be information on how to use the Omega-4 relay."

"That is possible and that is why we are waiting. We are gathering the fleets and sorting out preparations and strategies. Also we are seeing which other races are able to commit to an assault. It will take abit of time, but meanwhile I want you and Joker to head down to the drydocks. Hackett left a parting gift to you."

. . . . .

"Man... this sucks Phil.. Guarding a door while the fleet is gathering." Complained an Alliance trooper.

"Quit your whining Marcus." Phil said, another Alliance trooper standing outside the entrance to the Mars research facility. "The security and comm systems are down, so were needed out here."

"We should be kicking Cerberus ass across the Omega system." Marcus replied in a bored tone.

"Then what? Without the IFFs we would be sitting ducks, hence why we are guarding this place."

"I suppose... hey whats that?" Marcus pointed to a small drone that had just hovered into view. "Hey!" He called out to it, it stopped. Then hurried off to the other side. "Wait up!" Marcus chased after it, running around in a large circle after it.

Phil couldn't help but chuckle to himself, that was untill the little drone came up to him and gave him a little shock. "Why you little..." And with that they both chased the drone and ran out of sight.

Tali stepped out of the shadows nearby, "Nobody's faster than Chiktikka vas Paus!" She said to herself while smiling, then headed into the facility. She kept to the shadows, avoiding any Alliance personnel she came across, sneaking or climbing around them. She felt different, she didn't want to hurt anybody here. It was strange considering she had been sent here to kill Liara, and even that she had doubts that she could bring herself to do. But she would decide that when she came face to face with her. Any guards she did come across that she couldn't avoid, she disposed of them in non-lethal ways, mainly by knocking them unconscious, a couple she had managed to lock into side rooms.

As she reached deeper into the facility, she found that she stopped seeing any Alliance personnel, no guards or civilians. She entered a large hub, it was filled with consoles and view screens, with a large one in the center of the room and working at the centre, was Liara.

She moved forward slowly and silently, her hand slowly moving to her waist and pulling out her pistol. As she got closer she slowly raised her arm and pointed it at the back of Liara, then her voice came.

"Tali, I've been expecting you." She said calmly without looking at her then she slowly turned around.

"Liara.. you were.. expecting me?" She asked in a confused tone, still aiming the pistol at Liara. She looked at the view screen to see Liara had cracked a tiny part of the new IFF frequency.

"Yes, how do you think The Illusive Man found out about what I was doing here? I let him."

"If that was true... where are the guards?" She asked, feeling wary. Something wasn't right here.

"I asked them to keep the areas nearby clear, didn't want them to disturb my work... and so you could get here safely."

"What?.. why? Your lying!" Talis arm was shaking.

"Tali.." She moved forward slowly, "I don't want to fight you or hurt you.. I believe I can help.. I have been working on a way to help you, and now I feel confident that it will work.. which is why I let the Illusive Man find me, I knew he'd send you"

Liara had moved closer to Tali, standing just infront of Talis out stretched arm. She could see Tali watching her closely, but Liara was unarmed and possed no threat. She hadn't lied when she told Tali she'd been working on a way to save her. She belived an ancient Asari technique could be used to bring Tali back to who she used to be by showing her, her memories, using a mind-meld. But normally it would only show an Asari's memories to whoever they melded with. Liara had spent week's studying scriptures to find out if it had ever been done before, to show others their own memories.

One scripture did have what she needed, on very rare occasions it had been done in the past, and not only had that been done, on some of those occasions, memories could also be fabricated. Liara had trained her mind day and night, and now was the time to put it to the test.

With a flick of her hand she used her biotics to place Tali in stasis, this wouldn't last long, she would have to be quick.

"What... are you... doing!" Tali cried out

"Reminding you who you are.." Liara placed her hand softly on Tali, normally she would need Tali to close her eyes. But she doubted very much that Tali would listen, then she started the meld.

Images flashed in Tali's mind. She saw herself on the Citadel, in trouble only to be saved by Shepard. She saw how Shepard had helped her with her pilgrimage. The images kept flashing before her, the next one she saw was of her on Freedom's Progress meeting Shepard, she could remember how she felt knowing he was alive again. Then a mission on Haestrom where yet again Shepard came to her rescue, then how Shepard defended her so passionately against exile from the migrant fleet. Then came a vivid memory of her first night with Shepard.

The images didn't stop there, next showed how they defeated the collectors together, then meeting up during the war with the Geth for her homeworld, she felt her heart sink. Shepard was hugging her on a cliff on Rannoch, planning a future together. She saw how they spent the night together before the fleets of every race came together under Shepards name to defeat the reapers. Another image showed her cuddling Shepards body on the battlefield, and how she felt her world has ended when she believed he could be dead. The last image she saw, was of her in a chair, with The Illusive Man and Operative torturing her.

"Now... what you could still have to come.." Liaras voice came in her mind.

She saw a house on Rannoch, on a cliff overlooking the sea. She saw herself just walk out of it, she was out of her suit and in a weird style of clothing. She stretched as she watched the sun rise, a voice called out to her and Shepard came out of the house, in his arms was a small child.

The images were too much for Tali to bare, she managed to broke free of the stasis and in the confusion a gunshot went off. Liara staggered back against one of the consoles. Tali seeing what she had done, dropped the gun in shock.

"Liara.. I..." she began to say, she sounded close to tears.

"It's ok Tali... over there, on the console is a data disk.. take it." Liara said as she held her wound, sliding down to the floor.

Tali didn't move at first, she carried on to watch Liara, then she headed over to the console and picked up the disk. "What is it...?"

"You'll see... and I'm sorry for whats on it.. We all are.." Liara gave her a small sad smile.

Tali looked at the disk then put it in her suit pocket, she then looked up at what Liara was working on, it would take her weeks maybe even months to finish it. She looked away, leaving the data intact and started to head towards the exit, she stopped next to Liara. She opened up another pocket and slowly handed Liara some medi-gel. "I'm.. sorry.." Then she ran off.

Liara watched as Tali left, she smiled to herself. "We believe in you Tali.. by the goddess you will have that future." She said to herself as she applied the medi-gel.

. . . . .

Shepard, Joker and Price had just arrived at the Drydocks.

"So err.. what are we doing here?" Joker asked as Price led them through a large blast door and into a massive dark hanger.

"A couple of weeks before Hackett's death, he set the wheels in motion.." Price then used a nearby console to bring the hanger lights online. "For this." As the lights came on, the hanger lit up and both Shepard and Joker nearly fainted.

"Beautiful.." Joker said amazed, he leaned forward with hands on the rails infront of him.

"I don't believe it.." Shepard said just as amazed as Joker.

Before them rested a large ship in Alliance colours, along the side of the hull was the name "Normandy SR-3" On visual inspection the SR-3 was largely similar to the SR-2, but Shepard could see some of the differences right away. Besides being even larger, the ship was bulkier and had several large dome turrets mounted along the top of the ship, it also had broadside cannons that ran along the side. "T_his was a warship_" Shepard thought, it seemed to have the characteristics of both a cruiser and a frigate.

"I'll take your reactions as that you are both pleased." Price said, "And I'm sure the ships AI will be able to fill in on all the changes and..." He was cut off.

"What? Im not working along side a new AI.. I wouldn't betray EDIs memory like that." Joker said in a hurt tone.

"Which is why I'm here." Came an all too familiar voice.

Both Joker and Shepard looked over at the ships boarding hatch. Standing in the doorway, was EDI.

"Hello again Jeff." EDI said with a smile.


	15. Chapter 15

"EDI?" Joker stated recognizing her voice.

"Eva?" Shepard added, he instead recognized the body. They both looked at each other with confused looks on their faces.

EDI placed a hand on her hip, she had dark black hair, a light skin tone and was dressed in an Alliance officers uniform, "You don't recognize me?" She said with a small smile "You are both correct. This platform has been fully refurbished, to the state it was before I had originally '_acquired_' it from the Eva."

"But.. but... you look human?" Joker struggled to get the words out.

EDI gave Joker a warm smile. "Eva was a gynoid infiltration unit, she was designed to be indistinguishable from humans." EDI admired one of her hands. "I like it. Don't you Jeff?"

"I err... well yeah ofcourse I do! It's just.. you died..." Joker admitted, Shepard kept quiet, he wanted to let Joker have his happy moment.

"Death is a organic concept Jeff." She extended a walkway from the platform they were on to the hatch. "The Geth remotely downloaded my program from my old body and uploaded it to the Geth network, while you was mourning over me aboard their ship." She started to head down the walkway towards them. "They were able to repair my program engrams and my electronic neural network. They then worked in secret with Alliance Command to give me this new unit and set me to work on the SR-3."

Both Joker and Shepard looked at Price. "Hey don't look at me, I didn't know about it till this morning. It was above 'top secret' and strictly off the record." Price said. Joker moved forward to meet EDI, they stood inches apart looking at each other. Then hugged each other warmly.

"Your skin... it feels so soft.. kinda weird." He laughed quietly to himself, EDI was looking at him, then she moved close to kiss him.

Price and Shepard looked away awkwardly, "Erm yes, well I've got to get back to playing diplomat, convincing other races to join the assault when we are ready. Also got to make another report to the Council and the Quarian Admiralty Board." Price sighed. "The SR-3 will be ready to take off as soon as the crew finishes arriving."

Shepard and Price saluted each other, as Price left, Shepard turned to admire the new Normandy.

. . . . .

The Illusive Man was laying on a operating table in a lab aboard the Dreadnought, Operative was at one of the consoles. Consoles, terminals and view screens filled the lab, biotic implants were on trays next to the table, machines and large tubes of eezo were connected up to The Illusive Man.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Operative asked in a concerned voice.

"I am always sure. Now that the Dreadnought is only one step away from completion, this is the last thing I need to do, to fully master the power of Dark Energy."

"But we have no idea how this much Dark Energy and Biotics will work in conjunction with each other..." She was monitoring The Illusive Mans vital signs and a pair of brain neural patterns on a view screen, one of which belonged to Harbinger.

"If this works, I'll have direct control over the strongest force in the galaxy."

"And if it dosn't?..."

"If it dosn't, then I expect you Operative, to carry on with my vision. Now, stop questioning me and begin the process."

"Sir..." Operative said lowly then began typing into the console. Machines started to come online, pumps slowly started to inject the eezo directly into The Illusive Man. Generators kicked into action, passing currents through the eezo and started fusing it with pure Dark Energy. The process quickly gained momentum, Operative tried to keep it at a reasonable level but the machines were out of control. The console overloaded and blew, throwing her back against the wall and to the floor, some of the other consoles followed suit. The lights flickered a few times before most of the room went dark, the only thing Operative could see clearly, were the tubes that did contain the eezo, they were now empty.

She pulled herself up as the machines came to a halt, the only sound she could hear in the dark room was sparks coming from the wrecked consoles. "Sir?.." She asked quietly. She then saw two small bright yellow lights appear in the middle of the room and watched them as they began to rise up to head level. One of the view screens near her came back online and showed The Illusive Mans vitals and the pair of brain neural patterns, except from the view screen it showed that the patterns has merged into one neural pattern, a very erratic pattern. "Sir?" She asked again.

"Operative." A voice came, the lights slowly came back on, and at the centre of the chaos stood The Illusive Man. His eyes were as bright as a pair of yellow stars, violet flares danced around his body. "We feel it. The Power of Dark Energy.. is ours to command." The voice that spoke was neither The Illusive Mans or Harbingers, but a mix.

. . . . .

The new Normandy soared through the space above Earth, rolling and weaving between Dreadnoughts and Carriers that patrolled the system. The ship was the fastest thing in the system, despite being far larger then any other frigate, it maneuvered with perfect precision.

"This is freaking awesome!" Joker cried out while sitting at the helm, sending the Normandy into a sharp dive and pulling out just before it hit a crusier. "Hell yeah!" Shepard was sitting on Jokers left while EDI had taken the seat on the right. Normally Shepard would of made a comment about how Joker was flying abit too recklessly, but he was just as amazed by the new ship as Joker was.

"As you can see, the SR-3 far superior to the SR-2 in terms of maneuverability. And it currently is the fastest ship in the galaxy when compared to known ship models." EDI said, she had a smile on her face as she watched Joker enjoy himself.

"What else does ship have?" Shepard finally asked, as he watched the Normandy roll over a Carrier.

"The SR-3 now was 7 decks, all of which are far larger then the SR-2s. The two additional are, a officers deck which has large private quarters for senior crew members, it also has a officer conference room. The other new deck is the gunnery deck, with the large amount of added armaments."

"A whole deck for the cannons? Garrus will love that." Shepard laughed.

"The SR-3 has enough firepower to rival a Alliance dreadnought. It also has a few prototype features, one of which is a Geth repair protocol similar to that found on, Geth Colossus's. And another is a enhanced stealth mode." EDI said while typing into the console infront of her.

"Enhanced stealth mode?" Shepard asked.

"Joker pull up along side that deadnought." EDI stated, Joker did as he was told and parked along side. EDI used her console to pull up on a view screen of one of the internal video feeds on that dreadnought that showed the Normandy outside. "Activating stealth mode." The ship then disappeared from the video feed.

"Oh thats awesome!" Joker said excitedly.

Shepard nearly fell out of his seat, he could still see the dreadnought outside the window. "Where did we go?"

"This is the enhanced stealth mode, its an adaptation of the Geth Hunters tactical cloaking device. This prototype was offered to the Alliance by the Geth as a sign of good faith as humans would say. It does however come with some drawbacks and limitations, due to the amount of power it requires, both weapons and shields go offline for the duration."

"Damn, that still is incredibly powerful and useful." Shepard sat amazed.

"Commander we got a message coming through." Joker said.

"Put it up." Shepard said as a view screen came on, it was Liara. "Liara, it's good to see... whats wrong?" He saw Liara holding her side.

"_Oh this? It's nothing that won't heal. We've only just been able to restore outside comm's here. But I got some news for you. Tali was here." _ She said.

"God dammit" Joker said to himself.

"What was she doing there? Was she the one who hurt you?" He replied in a worried tone.

"_Yes, but it was a accident, she didn't mean to. I let Cerberus learn about what I was doing here, and I knew they would send Tali to kill me. I wanted her to come here and she had arrived a few hours ago to kill me."_

"What? Liara why?"

"_I had been researching mind-melds because I believed that maybe that could help Tali, and I think.. it worked. I was able to show her, her memories that had been suppressed. I believe it helped her remember who she really is."_

"Where is she now then?"

"_She ran off.. I don't blame her for that although, the experience would of traumatized her and left her very confused. She will need time to come to terms with what I was able to show her."_

"And you really think this work?" Shepard asked hopefully.

"_I do, she could of killed me and she didn't, she even gave me the medi-gel for the wound. She also didn't erase the data on the IFFs, and she never killed a single person while she was here. I also gave her a disk to help her see some things. I believe... Tali is back." _She said with a smile.

"Thats... great news!... we'll drop by Mars and pick you up, I'm sure you'll love to see the new Normandy."

"Oh? I look forward to that." She replied then the message ended.

"That sounds like a good cause to celebrate." EDI said then typed something into her console, her voice then came over the ships intercom.

_"Daisy Daisy, Give me your answer do! I'm half crazy, All for the love of you!"_

"EDI!" Joker shouted.

. . . . .

Tali had just arrived at Sanctuary on Horizon, it had been a few days since her encounter with Liara, since she had opened Talis eyes and reminded her of things that had been buried away inside her. She wasn't sure what to do, could she just turn up and hand herself over to Shepard and the Alliance? "No" She told herself, she knew better then most about what was at stake, and in her current position she had the chance to take down Cerberus from the inside. She also considered sending a message to Shepard or the Alliance, but one thing kept her from doing so, If Cerberus found out she wouldn't be in the position to stop them. She had to keep up the pretence untill she could find a way to undo some of the mess she helped to cause.

She headed deep into the Sanctuary facility with a team of Cerberus troops, her mind was distracted from the mission. All she could think about was all she had done and why, all she knew is that one minute she had been by Shepards side and then the next, she was fighting against him. There was alot of blanks still that needed filling, but for now she held herself together and stayed focus. She'd have to stay strong if she was to fix things. She thought back to the disk Liara had given her and wondered what could be on it, she had decided she would try to view it while at this facility.

Tali arrived at the central lab and approached the main console, she started to search through the database for any left over information. "This is strange." She thought to herself, there was nothing left at all, the databases had been wiped clean. She typed commands into the console and opened up a communication channel to Operative.

"Operative, were at the central lab at Sanctuary.. but I can't find any traces of data that could of been left behind, it's been wiped clean." Tali stated, slightly suspicious of that fact.

"_Is that so?.. Well look around for awhile longer. If you are still unable to find anything then head back, we have intel that suggests the Alliance and other races are going to mount an attack on Omega."_ She replied coldly.

"I'll keep looking then I'll head back." She closed the channel. "_Keelah, if the Alliance attacks Omega they'll be sitting ducks without the new IFF.. I need to get back.. prehaps I can find a way to help the fleet from the inside.."_ She told herself, feeling abit better now she had a idea how she could help bring the Dreadnought down. She looked down at the console then took out the data disk she had got from Liara and placed it inside the console, it came up on the view screen but was encrypted. She started to type into her omni-tool and began to run a decryption program, it would take a few minutes.

. . . . .

Ashley had closely followed the group into the facility, waiting for the best chance to gain an advantage over Tali and her group. She was outnumbered and outgunned but she also had the element of surprise on her side and hopefully that's all she would need to complete her mission. She had hoped that she could get a shot of at Tali first then clear up the group of Cerberus troops, but Tali was moving out of view more often then not, she was doing something on the main console.

She watched from a shaded area behind some storage crates, Tali seemed to have stopped pacing and was busy typing into the console, a perfect time to take a shot. Ashley raised her assault rifle and looked down the sight, she had a clear shot at Tali's head. "I'm sorry Tali" She said to herself as she pulled the trigger.

. . . . .

Tali was watching as the decryption program reached halfway to completion, an error then popped up and stopped it where it was. Tali started typing into the console but wasn't having any luck, she then lent down and hit it, "_Bosh'tet!_" She thought. The next thing she heard was a loud bang, followed by something grazing the back of her hood, she jumped up in surprise. "Keelah!" The room then filled with shouting and gunfire, "Alliance!" one of the Cerberus troops shouted.

Tali quickly took cover behind one of the other consoles, she looked around at where the shooter was and drew a pistol, two of the Cerberus troops fell to the floor near her and she caught a glimpse of their attacker. It was Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, her friend, or so she had thought. _"Who am I kidding... after everything I done... they all must hate me... even Shepard.." _She thought to herself, feeling deeply saddened.

A grenade landed next to her, "Keelah!" She kicked it away quickly before it could detonate. It then detonated next to a fuel pipe, killing a nearby Cerberus trooper. The explosion caused a chain reaction as fuel tanks blew around the lab, killing most the Cerberus troopers and knocking both Tali and Ashley of their feet.

The lab laid in ruins, fires were burning in parts and most of the consoles had been wrecked. Ashley was pinned down by some of the wreckage, her right arm was trapped and she couldn't reach her weapon. She tried to look around as her vision cleared, a Cerberus troop had gotten up not far from her. Looking at her, he picked up his weapon and moved towards her, he took aim at her. "_This is it..._" She told herself, she closed her eyes and heard a gunshot. She didn't feel any pain following the shot, "_I must be at peace_" she thought, then she realised she could still here hear the fires burning in the lab and the sparks from wrecked consoles.

She opened her eyes to see the Cerberus trooper stagger forward and then collapse in a heap near her. She tilted her head up and looked around, and there, across the room with her pistol raised was Tali. Tali looked around as she approached Ashley, she dropped her pistol and tried to move some of the wreckage that held down Ashley.

"Keelah.. it's too heavy for me.." Tali said quietly, she then knelt down to Ashley and accessed her omni-tool, which then started to transmit a distress signal.

"What are you doing?" Ashley asked Tali, confused by her actions.

"Helping you..." She replied, not meeting Ashleys eyes.

"Why? Your the enemy.." She added in a condemning tone. Tali didn't answer.

Tali looked behind her as the main view screen kicked into life, the decryption program was finished and the data disk started to play. Tali stood up and slowly moved towards the view screen, it showed images of her strapped to a operating table, of her screaming out in pain as she was tortured by The Illusive Man, Harbinger and Operative. Between she screams of pain she could hear words of defiance coming from her and she resisted, she saw how they had connected her up to machines and pumped her full of stuff. The next images shocked her more then anything she had ever seen, it was a thermal image of her, the next one was zoomed in on her womb, it showed her that she was pregnant.

Talis hand moved over her belly, she looked down as she stood there frozen in shock. Then she broke down into tears, falling to her knees. Ashley could hear Tali crying and felt instantly sympathetic for her.

"Tali?.. is that you in there?" Ashley asked softly. But Tali wasn't listening, she was cradling her knees to her chest, hiding her face as she sobbed. Several moments past before Ashley spoke again. "Tali.. if thats you in there... let us help you.. come with me."

Tali sniffed then looked up at the screen, "No... theres only one thing I can do..." Tali stood up and started to head out of the room before looking back at Ashley. "I.. hope help comes for you soon..."


	16. Chapter 16

Shepard was sitting in the conference room aboard the Normandy, it had been nearly two weeks since he was given the new Normandy and since the fleets had started to prepare and gather for the attack. With him was Joker, EDI, Liara and Price, they were discussing the final plan of attack on Omega now that most the forces had gathered.

"So to recap, the fleets will push through to Omega station past any defences that Cerberus and Aria may have waiting for us. The Normandy and other small ships will drop off strike teams onto Omega. You and the other teams will then proceed through the station to the Cerberus base and hopefully be able to obtain intel on how we can pass the Omega-4 relay." Price stated.

"Do we know where the base is located? It would take along time to search the whole of Omega." Shepard asked.

"I have learnt that the base is at the height of Omega station, buried in the core of the remaining half of the asteroid." Liara said while reading a data log.

Price nodded to her then said. "The Alliance fleet and a large part of the Citadel Defence fleet will be heading straight to Omega from here in the Sol system, several other fleets may be joining us there including the Turian fleet. I should also add that the Destiny Ascension will be present."

"Woah.. what?" Joker said surprised. "Dosn't this seem abit too much like... overkill?"

"Stray reports and transmissions we picked up from the First Fleet before they were destroyed, show that the entire fleet was unable to even scratch the surface of the Dark Energy Dreadnought. That ship has enough power to wipe out a system. No one wants to take any chances of letting it escape or survive."

EDI then spoke up. "Commander. We have a shuttle from the council docking in the shuttle bay. It's Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams."

"Thank you EDI." Shepard said smiling, he wasn't sure how he felt about having Ashley back with them after she had accepted the councils mission.

"Well I should take my leave." Price said. "Got a fleet to prepare, i'll be acting Fleet Admiral." Price saluted them and headed out of the room, he saluted Ashley as he passed her in the doorway.

Shepard watched her as she entered, she looked like she had a rough time recently. After everyone greeted her and exchanged pleasantries, she took a seat with them.

"So, looks like you picked up some new war wounds. How they happen?" Shepard asked.

She looked at him, then at everyone else in room. "I found Tali." She said, Joker sighed and there was a akward pause.

It was Shepard who broke the silence. "What happened?"

"I had tracked her down to Sanctuary on Horizon, after a fire fight with Cerberus troops there was a series of explosions that ripped apart the lap we were in. The explosions left me trapped under some wreckage. A Cerberus trooper was about to finish me of when Tali saved me. She tried to shift the wreckage but when she was unable to, she activated my distress beacon..." Silence followed her words. "I know, I was as shocked as you are."

The others looked at Liara. "Do you remember anything else?" She asked Ashley.

"Yes... she... a disk was playing on a view screen after, it showed the footage we saw on haestrom... and of her pregnancy... she broke down in tears after.. then she ran out saying she had to do something.." Ashleys tone had changed to one of sadness.

"Is that the disk you gave her Liara?" Shepard asked, Ashley looked at her confused.

"Yes." Liara noticed Ashleys looks at her and then added. "I had an encounter with her on Mars a few weeks back also. I used a mind-meld to remind her of who she was and then gave her that disk to look at." Ashley frowned but then nodded to say she understood.

"What does this all mean? And why would she go off alone instead of staying with Ashley or Liara?" Shepard asked, trying to hide his feelings on the matter.

To everyones surprise it was EDI who spoke. "From the reports and evidence gathered. I believe that recent events have broken the indoctrination and hold that The Illusive Man and Harbinger once had over Tali'Zorah."

"And yes she still returns to them?" Joker asked with contempt.

"I don't believe Tali'Zorah is doing it out of loyalty for them. More like she either dosn't feel she can return after whats happened or she feels the responsibility in ending the threat is down to her alone."

"Pffft... and so she should." Joker said, Shepard shot him a dark look.

"No Jeff. Tali'Zorah is our crewmate and most importantly she is our friend. She doesn't need to stand alone."

"What? How can you say that? After what she did!" Joker was stunned.

"You are referring to her shutting down my old platform. I have no desire for revenge or feel the need to hold a grudge. Everything she did and has done, was done by The Illusive Man and Harbingers hand, not hers. She stood by us all for years, side by side untill the very end in the fight against the Reapers. We know who she truly is better then anyone." EDI said.

"I was with you on this Joker, untill she saved me, untill I saw her reaction to the data disk on Horizon. That was our Tali, she saw what they did to her, and what they made her do... and it broke her heart." Ashley added. "Its partly why I'm here, I've just told the council where to stick their mission." She then smiled at Shepard who returned the gesture.

Liara was the next one to voice her view. "Joker, I saw into her mind, I felt everything she felt, and I felt the shock and horror when I showed her the truth. She truly didn't have a clue why or what she was doing. I also felt an intense feeling of guilt and remorse."

"I know... but..." Joker said looking down.

"But you are only human, and needed someone to blame." EDI gave him a smile. "But if you want to blame anyone, blame those that are responsible for her actions."

"I... your right..." He looked at Shepard. "I'm... I'm sorry Commander... I've been a dick..."

"Yeah you have.. and so have I." Shepard got up and walked over to Joker, then extended his hand. "You ready to take the fight to The Illusive Man and Harbinger?"

"Just they try and stop us." Joker replied and took Shepards hand and shook it.

. . . . .

Shepard and the rest of the team were in the cockpit, Joker was at the helm, with Liara and EDI in the co-pilot seats. The Normandy had taken point and was leading the fleets towards the mass relay.

"_All ships report in." _Came Price's voice over the intercom.

"_This is the SSV Logan, Flagship of the Third Fleet reporting in, all ships accounted for." _A female voice replied.

"_This is the SSV Orizaba, Flagship of the Fifth Fleet reporting in, all ships accounted for." _Another voice came, this time it was male.

"This is Commander Shepard reporting in with the SSV Normandy SR-3" Shepard replied over the comm when it was his turn to report in, then listened as the other fleets reported in with the Destiny Ascension being last.

"_This is Matriarch Lidanya, commanding officer aboard the Destiny Ascension, the _Citadel Defence fleet is standing by." Lidanya stated coldly.

"_This is acting Fleet Admiral Price to all ships. Prepare to make the mass relay jump to Omega."_ Price voice came over the Normandys intercom.

"Ok Joker, lets do this." Shepard said to Joker.

"Aye aye Commander" He said with a smile and with that the Normandy let the fleets into the mass relay jump.

. . . . .

Tali was standing in a dark conference room with Operative, The Illusive Man and a holo of Aria T'Loak.

"We've sent a group of crusiers to reinforce your merc ships to help defend Omega." The Illusive Man and Harbinger said, their voices still entangled.

"_Just a group? Reports say we got the whole goddamn Alliance Fleet and more on its way to Omega!" _Aria shouted.

"And what excatly was you expecting Aria?"

_"How about that that damn Dreadnought? Since thats why they will be attacking my station!" _

"Hmmm, your right. We'll ready the Dreadnought and the rest of the fleet." They said with a lie. "Soon as we are ready we'll head on over, and hopefully catch them by surprise." They replied with a smile.

"_Hmmm.. fine. But if you double cross me, you'll be back at the top of my shit list." _Aria the ended the call and the holo of her vanished.

"Goodbye Aria, it was a pleasure doing business with you." They said to themselves, smirking. "Operative, we want you to head to the communication centre and monitor the situation at Omega from there."

"I dont trust her to remain loyal if things go bad for her." Operative said with a sneer.

"Neither do we. Which is why we want you to monitor it, make sure any data on the new IFF is wiped from their systems. Tali'Zorah, theres not much you can do for now. Head to your quarters and wait for instructions"

"Yes sir." She replied. They dismissed Tali with a nod and she left the room.

"What are we going to do with her?" Operative asked once Tali had left.

"We'll keep her on side, for now. Once the child is born, her use will be at a end, and you'll be free to put her down." A evil grin crept onto their face.

. . . . .

Tali rested on her bed nervously twiddling her fingers, she was very grateful to be alone. Ever since she had returned, she could barely stomach being around anyone, and it took all of her will to keep up the pretence. She had spent every waking moment since Horizon working on ways to take the Dreadnought and Cerberus down once and for all, she had gathered all the intel she could on her omni-tool. Luckily it hadn't been hard to obtain it, she still had top clearance, but most of this data was now useless since Harbinger and The Illusive Man had merged themselves with pure dark energy. "_He... they.. now had direct control over the ship._" She told herself.

Simple sabotage would not stop them now, even ending their lifes wouldn't stop the Dreadnought. The Dreadnoughts computers and VI would carry on acting on the orders and wishes they had set into it, and only The Illusive Man and Herbinger could change that. Still, that didn't stop Tali thinking about just turning around and killing them, the only thing that stopped her from doing just that was the fact she wanted to see the Dreadnought on the brink of destruction first.

There was a couple of ideas still open to her but they were very situational, then Tali decided, she would make those situations happen. She stood up and headed over to her terminal, using her high clearance and hackings skills, she began to gain access to Omega stations defences and the security. "Ha, I could do this with my eyes closed" She said smiling to herself, covering her tracks well as she went.

. . . . .

The Normandy jumped into the Omega system, and behind it came the rest of the fleets. They quickly arranged themselves into an attack formations as they headed towards Omega station and the fleet stationed there at max speed with the Normandy taking the lead.

The system was soon filled with flashes of reds and blues as the Alliance fleet engaged the Cerberus and merc fleets head on. Swarms of fighters from both sides joined the fight, engaging each other and swarming over the capital ships, looking for gaps in the defences of the dreadnoughts and carriers.

Even from afar the Normandy stood out in the battle, a fast moving fortress that lit up everything near it in flashes of blue and red, followed by explosions. The Normandy dodged blasts from mass cannons and thanix beams, it's mass amounts of GARDIANs were wiping out whole squads of fighters in seconds.

"Joker, lets show them our new teeth!" Shepard said, standing behind Joker at the helm.

The Normandy headed right for a Cerberus cruiser, the SR-3 easily out maneuvering its cannons and moved into range. The Thanix main gun deployed and fired a bright blue beam at the cruiser, ripping into the hull, as the Normandy proceeded to make a pass, their broadside cannons and turrets targetted the cruiser and finished the job.

"Oh man Commander! This thing is a powerhouse!" Joker shouted with enthusiasm, the Normandy along with the Fifth fleet had broken through Cerberus defence line and were pushing the opening and heading for Omega station.

"_This is Fleet Admiral Price to the Assault teams. Begin your approach to Omega station"_ Price said.

"Hold on guys this is going to be a bumpy ride.." Joker said in a concerned tone. The stations defences targeted everything that came near it. Alliance fighters exploded around them and a frigate had to pull out after taking heavy damage.

"_Shit, we're getting torn to shreads here!" _A voice came over the comms of the Normandy. They were right. The Normandy and the other assault ships were barely half way to the station and already over half of them had been wiped out.

"I can see why no one has tried a frontal assault on the station before!" Shepard said. "Shit, we may have to pull back and try something else!"

"Shepard, I don't think the Normandy will be able to escape in time now. " EDI stated.

"What about the new stealth systems?" Shepard asked.

"Negative. With the amount of fire being directed in this area, lowering our shields will be suicide." EDI replied

"Shit.. ok let me think..."

"Err Commander?" Joker said.

"One second Joker I'm thinking."

"Commander! The guns! They stopped!" Joker said looking back out the window. Joker was right, the guns had suddenly fell silent.

"What the... Ok head for the station, double time!"

. . . . .

The Normandy and other assault ships had docked at Omega station without any further trouble. Shepard, Ashley and Liara headed into the station with Alliance forces without much resistance, the small groups of mercs that tried to make a stand were gunned down. The docks defences were unorganized, "Obviously they weren't expecting us to make it onto the station, guess it wasn't them that turned off the guns." Shepard said to his group.

"Ok this way" Liara said checking her omni-tool. Shepard and his team along with the Alliance troopers ascended the station. As they climbed higher the resistance got thicker, a combined force of Omegas three biggest players, the Blue Suns, the Blood Pack and the Eclipse tried to block their path. This reminded Shepard of when he last came here to recruit Garrus, who was at the time going by the name of Archangel. Back then it was just the four of them that fought their way through all three groups of mercs and survived. "_Good times" _Shepard thought to himself, and this time he had an army by his side.

It wasnt long before Asari commandos and gunships reinforced their advance, and just in time to counter the Eclipse's heavy mechs. The paths up started to splinter, forcing the Alliance to split up their forces into smaller groups to cover each path. Shepard led a small group up one path, the mercs forces were dissipating and being replaced by Cerberus troops.

"How much further Liara?" Shepard asked as he lent out with his assault rifle and took down two Cerberus troops.

"Not much further.. we need to find a lift. The climb gets abit.. steep from here." She replied as she throw a Cerberus troop off the path with her biotics.

They came to a small opening with a cargo lift at the end. "That should take us up directly into the Cerberus base." Liara said and with that, Shepards group tore into the Cerberus troops guarding the area, gunfire and biotics filled the small area as bodies dropped. By the time it stopped, only Shepards team was left standing and proceeded to head into the lift.

"Do you know how big their base is Liara?" Shepard asked as the lift headed up.

"I'd say were already are in their base and have been for the past hour, I never saw any boundaries in the intel. But this lift will head directly into the main hub." She replied.

The lift stopped suddenly and a voice came over the lifts comm. "_Hello again Shepard, have you forgotten the only rule in Omega? Don't fuck with Aria. Now, you can just hang their for.."_ Aria stopped talking as the lift started to move again. "_Who the fuck started that lift again?"_ The last comment wasn't directed at Shepard and his team but someone in the room with her.

"Get ready guys." Shepard said as he readied his weapon, they took cover either side of the lift doors. As the doors opened, gunfire filled area, Liara put up a barrier and gave everyone a chance to leave the lift and get behind the nearest bits of cover. Shepard saw Aria stood in the middle of the room with her guards aswell as Cerberus troops. Behind her was a large view screen with a familiar face on it, Operatives. Shepard ran out from cover and drew their fire while Ashley and Liara picked a few off. From his new cover point Shepard was able to pick of a fair amount of her guard with his rifle while Aria tried to throw biotics his way.

It wasn't long before her guard and Cerberus troops were out of the way, leaving just her standing alone. She walked with her barrier up near the consoles in the room.

"You think you can walk into MY station and take it from me?" Aria shouted as she threw down more biotics at them.

"Give it up Aria! You got the entire Alliance on your doorstep and boarding the station, you got no where to go." He shouted back from cover, looking round to take a shot at her barrier. He noticed that the view screen was glitching.

"Let them come! I'll take you all down!" She took cover behind one of the consoles as more shots came way. She didn't notice Operatives face fade from the view screen, nor did she notice Tali's appear in it's place. Shepard was watching, he wanted to shout something out but something told him to keep quiet. Tali was typing fast into her omni-tool, a loud buzzing sound filled the room. Aria looked around to see where it was coming from but realised too late that it was from the console she was hiding behind. It overloaded and exploded violently, Aria was thrown back, her barrier was down. She tried to stand to her feet and raised her gun.

"I am Omega!" She shouted as Shepard, Ashley and Liara gunned her down.

Shepard moved out from his cover slowly, his weapon still raised incase anyone was left and approached the view screen.

"Tali?" He asked, he gave her a small smile.

"Shepard... I... don't have long.. I'm blocking Operatives signal." She replied quietly.

"Where are you?"

"Behind the Omega-4 relay... aboard the Dreadnought.. I have a plan.. maybe.. to bring it down.. but..." She paused and looked at him, his eyes were so warm and full of love for her.

"How can we get to the Dreadnought?"

She looked down. "I Don't.. want you to come.. I need to do this... alone... its all my fault.."

"No Tali. It's not your fault and you are not doing anything alone! We'll be there... I'll be there... and I'll bring you home." He gave her a bigger warm smile.

"I.. Thank you... I... I'm sending you the new IFF frequency.. the fleets will be able pass safely with it.. I need to go.. before they catch on... Keelah se'lai..."


	17. Chapter 17

Shepard, Ashley and Liara passed on through the Omega docks after the fightning had ended and they had gathered up any left over information, they were heading back to the Normandy. Shepard kept thinking back to seeing Tali on the view screen and her words, EDIs assumptions had been right, Tali did blame herself for everything and how she wanted to fix things herself. He stopped for a second just before the Normandys boarding walkway and sighed. "_Could he really bring her home? Would she even want to? Or would people even let her?_" He asked himself, he shook his head. "_We'll cross that bridge when we come to it_" He thought then followed the other two into the Normandy.

They headed to the bridge where Joker and EDI were working, Shepard had forwarded the new IFF frequency to EDI and the Normandy, where they could get it ready to send to the rest of the fleets.

"EDI, whats our status?" Shepard asked EDI as they stood at the helm.

"The new IFF requency has been successfully integrated into our systems, and we are ready to transmit it to the fleets. Just give the word." EDI replied with a slight smile.

"How did you even get it? You'd think that Cerberus would be smart enough to not leave it laying about in a base for all to see..." Joker said sarcastically.

"We didn't get it from Cerberus, Tali gave us it." Shepard replied, he couldnt help the joyful tone he had replied in.

"Tali was here? Did you bring her with you?"

"No, she hacked into the bases systems from where she is, aboard the Dreadnought. She gave us the new IFF." Shepard could see the unease in Jokers face, he still had some concerns and he couldn't blame Joker for that. "Liara checked it against what she had already decoded. It matched perfectly." He added, Liara gave a nod and a smile.

"I did run a small diagnostic on Omega stations defence systems, it showed that the defence guns were shut down remotely from outside the system. It is likely Tali had a hand in that also." EDI added.

Shepard then walked over to one of the consoles and typed in a few commands, opening up a comms channel to Price. "This is Commander Shepard to Fleet Admiral Price." He said into the comms.

"_This is Fleet Admiral Price, I read you Commander. Do you have anything to report?" _Prices voice came over the comm.

"All resistance has been neutralised here on Omega station.. and we have the new IFF frequency. We have checked it over and confirmed it to be correct, we are ready to transmit the data to the fleets."

"_That is great news Commander. Start transmitting it immediately and we'll get right to work adjusting our systems for it. Most ships were refurbished with IFFs during refitting, should only take an hour max for everyone to adjust their settings."_

"Yes Admiral." Shepard turned to EDI, "EDI begin transmission."

"Yes Commander." She said with a nod then sat at a console and began sending the data to the fleets.

"_Oh and don't forget to send it to Turian fleet that has just arrived and someone aboard their flagship wishes to talk to you. I'll patch you through to them now, Price out." _Priced added before ending the comm channel. A beep followed shortly and Shepard opened up the new channel.

"_I see you started the party without me, well, you need the headstart. I'll still kill more then you although." _Came a familiar male Turian voice.

"Garrus? Slow as always I see, well, you're here now." Shepard replied in shock at first, then chuckled. "What kept you?"

"_Turian politics.. give me a Reaper invasion anyday. But when that finally died down, the new Primarch was then able to finally commit to this situation."_

"You'll have to pass my thanks to the new Primarch then."

"_I... err yeah I can do that."_ He replied, then another voice spoke to him in the background.

"_Primarch Vakarian, we just recieved the new IFF frequency from the Alliance. We'll start altering ours right away." _Said the other Turian voice.

_"..Yes.. Thanks for.. that..."_ Garrus replied with a sigh.

"Primarch? I always knew you'd hit the top one day, how is..." Shepard was interrupted by Garrus and he laughed.

"_Not..a word Shepard. Why don't you bring the this new Normandy over that I keep hearing about. We can have a catch up while the fleets prepare." _

"Yes ofcourse, Primarch." Shepard replied jokingly.

"_Damn you Shepard." _Garrus replied with a small chuckle.

. . . . .

"_All fleets have adjusted their systems to match the new IFF requency, we'll be ready to depart momentarily." _Price said over Shepards comms device. "_And Shepard, I don't need to tell you how dangerous your idea is and I know no amount of talking will discourage you. I can only warn you that the fleets will go all out on the Dreadnought regardless, so be quick. Godspeed Shepard"_

"Aye aye Admiral, the Normandy is standing by awaiting the order. And I understand, the crew has been informed and are well aware of the risk. Thank you and good luck." Shepard replied before he ended the call. He was walking around the Normandy with Garrus, showing him the changes, he had also filled him in on the latest news about Tali and the plan he had come up with.

"I always knew she was still in their somewhere, I'm gald she's back. I hope we can save her from aboard the Dreadnought. Do you think Cerberus will be suspicious of her now?" Garrus asked.

"I dont know.." Shepard admitted, he had tried not to give it any thought. That Tali could of been found out and hurt, or worse. "Tali is great at what she does, I can only hope she was able to cover her tracks well enough."

"I guess only time will tell, we'll have to hope for the best."

Shepard nodded then said, "Hmm, we'll be ready for the final battle shortly. I guess you should return to your fleet, Primarch." He said teasingly with a smile.

"Please, it's just Garrus to you Shepard, and i'd rather have it that way." He replied with a soft laugh. "And besides. I'm not heading back yet, I'll be joining you for this battle."

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked in surprise.

"Definitely, can't let you have all the fun now can I? Besides, you need someone to watch your back."

"Well.. I don't know, if you was to get hurt... think of all that paperwork and politics I'd have to deal with, having a Primarch hurt while under my command." Shepard mocked and teased Garrus.

"You're really not going to let this drop anytime soon are you?" Garrus sighed.

"Nope. But I'd be honored if you would join me. You always have my back Garrus, you're one of the few I trust with me life."

"Likewise." Garrus and Shepard then grasped each others right hand in a soul brothers handshake. "Brothers in arms." Garrus said proudly.

"Brothers in arms." Shepard replied, letting go of Garrus hand shortly after. A short silence followed as they headed to the bridge, which was then broken by Prices voice coming over the intercom.

"_This is Fleet Admiral Price to all vessels. Form up, we're going in." _He ordered.

Shepard and Garrus took their places at the helm with the others as the Normandy sped ahead of all the fleets taking point. Shepard had a feeling of deja vu, everything that was happening, was similar to the events leading up to taking Earth back from the Reapers. He just hoped that they'd get the same good result as they had then, and with that thought. The Normandy followed by the rest of the fleets, passed the Omega-4 relay and sped of towards the Galaxys core.

. . . . .

"Sir! We have incoming hostile forces! The Alliance and other fleets have just entered the system!" A cerberus bridge officer stated.

"They are unaffected by the black holes gravitational pull! They are running the correct IFF requency!" Another one shouted out.

The Illusive Man took a smoke then headed towards one the bridge windows, he looked out towards the relay and saw the specks of countless ships, slowly growing bigger as they approached the Cerberus fleet and the Dreadnought.

"It is of no concern to us. We'll crush them here. They've foolishly left their homes and systems undefended, once we are done with them here, they will be easy pickings." The Illusive Man and Harbinger replied, taking another smoke as he watched, Operative came and stood next to him.

"Do you think Aria betrayed us?" She asked as she looked out towards the incoming fleets.

"We fully expected her to at some point, after all she believes Cerberus has done to her. We are surprised it took her this long. Yet her use has ended nevertheless, we'll deal with her along with the rest of the Galaxy after we are done here." They paused to smoke for a second then said. "We want Tali'Zorah here on the bridge, send for her."

"Yes sir" She replied then walked away. The alarms sounded as the crew headed for their battlestations.

. . . . .

Shepard looked out of the bridge window as the Normandy headed towards the Cerberus fleet and the Dreadnought, with the fleets behind them following closely. Gasps and mutters filled the helm, "Look at the size of that thing!" Joker said gobsmacked. It was the first time any of them had laid eyes on the Dark Energy Dreadnought other then from schematics and holo images of it. Shepard thought back to the first time he had seen Sovereign and how he had felt then, he felt the same now, the same awe inspiring fear and that was without the black holes in the background. The vessel ahead of them was colossal, far bigger then even Sovereign had been, Shepard didn't know which worried him more, the Dreadnought or the black holes.

Shepard watched as fighters rushed past the windows of the Normandy, heading towards the Cerberus fleet where they met Cerberus fighters halfway between both of the fleets.

"_Joker hurry your ass up and get us into the fight, I want to test out our new guns." _Garrus's voice came over the helms comm from the gunnery deck.

"Aye aye Primarch." Joker said sarcastically and rolled his eyes as he kicked up the Normandys engines to full power.

"_Oh dont you start."_ Garrus replied.

The Normandy headed into the battle with the rest of the fleets as they both exchanged a barrage of fire. Shepard wouldn't be able to proceed with his plan untill both the Cerberus fleet and the Dreadnoughts attention was firmly fixed on the Alliance and the rest of the races. Shepard saw where his point of entry on the Dreadnought would be, massive hanger doors along the side of the vessel had opened up to allow Cerberus frigates and fighters to join the battle before shutting again.

The scene was like a massive firework display, streaks of red's and blues filled the gaps as cannon's fired at opposing ships, explosions of oranges and yellows danced around the hulls of larger ships, torpedos were as numerous as fighters, leaving small blue trails around the battle. The Alliance fleets hadn't slowed their advance and were now well and truly entangled with the Cerberus fleet, the Alliance fleets heavily outnumbered Cerberus, but that didn't stop Cerberus putting up a tough fight, grinding the Alliances advance to a halt, for now. And for the whole time the Dark Energy Dreadnought had laid in the background like a sleeping giant, it stood silent, its only contribution to the battle was to occasionally open it's hangers to send out more ships.

. . . . .

"They are in range sir." One of the dreadnoughts bridge crew said to The Illusive Man.

The Illusive Man and Harbinger had been watching the battle on a view screen, in one hand he had a glass of old English scotch and in the other, a cigarette. "We think they've had their fun." He paused to take a smoke of his cigarette. "Bring all batteries online, fire at will."

"Yes sir." The bridge crew replied, the Dreadnoughts alarms sounded as its weapons powered up.

. . . . .

The Normandy glided thought the battle, it's GARDIAN lasers targetted enemy fighters and torpedos that came anywhere near it. With ease the Normandy barrel rolled over a Turian dreadnought to put a Cerberus cruiser in it's sights, the Thanix Cannon powered up and shot its powerful beam at the cruiser, the beam swept over the hull just behind where the bridge would of been. It sliced the hull and separated the ship into two parts, sending them drifting in separate directions for a few moments before exploding one after the other.

"Great shot Garrus!" Joker yelled down the intercom.

"_Well, what can I say. All those calibrations pay of."_ He said in a smug tone.

Shepard kept watching as the battle unfolded. Soon their chance would come to infiltrate the Dreadnought, he hoped it would be soon. The Cerberus fleet was currently good for one thing, keeping the Alliance busy, it would buy Shepard the time he would need to get Tali out safely.

"Shepard.. I'm detecting an abnormally large amount of energy building up in the Dark Energy Dreadnought.. It's powering weapons!" EDI stated, sounding slightly alarmed.

Something caught Jokers eye. "Oh shit! Everyone hang on!" He shouted.

Streaks of violet came into contact with the Turian dreadnought near them and very shortly after the Turian ship exploded violently, sending shockwaves in all directions. One of the shockwaves hit the Normandy, for a moment Joker lost control of the ship as it rode the wave uncontrollably. The carnage didn't stop there, shortly after that two Asari dreadnoughts followed, exploding in a violent pulse of violet and again the resulting explosions sent shockwavs in all directions. Sending any ships nearby flying uncontrollably, or worse.

The battle had quickly turned, the Dark Energy Dreadnought had single handedly swung the battle in Cerberus's favour as the Alliances larger ships fell like flys to the Dreadnoughts superior weaponry.

"EDI! Any suggestions?" Shepard asked.

"I'm analysing the Dreadnoughts attack patterns, one second Commander..." She paused as she calculated hundreds of solutions in her core in seconds. "Those cannons rely on long range, the fleets need to get closer if they hope to survive."

"What? Thats crazy! The GARDIANs and close range cannons will ripe us to shreads." Joker exclaimed.

"We'll laster longer against them, then we will here against those cannons." EDI replied.

"Agreed, open up a channel to Fleet Admiral Price." Shepard said to EDI, she typed into her console and opened up a comms channel to Price.

"_Shepard! That Dreadnought is tearing us to pieces! I'm going to have to order a retreat!" _Price shouted.

"No Admiral, if we flee now we'll never get another chance and we may aswell kiss our lives goodbye." Shepard replied, in a commanding tone.

"_Then what do you suggest? We won't have lives to kiss goodbye if we hang around much longer!_"

"We need to get closer to the Dreadnought, get under the cannons range, we'll have a better chance against its short range defences. And we can focus fire on it."

There was a pause before Price replied. "_I've heard worse ideas, goddammit. I'll give the order to push forward."_ The comm channel closed, and Prices voice shortly followed on the ships intercom as he broadcasted to the fleets. "_All ships engage the Dreadnought at point blank range!"_

The Alliance and other races pushed their fleets forward against Cerberus and torwards the Dark Energy Dreadnought, the Cerberus ships moved out of their path to avoid getting hit by the Dreadnoughts cannons as it targetted more Alliance ships. They went all out on any Cerberus ships that tried to block their path, hundreds of cannons targetting individual ships that refused to move.

The Normandy darted in and out between larger ships as it headed towards the Dreadnought, the chance for Shepard to infiltrate Dreadnought was getting closer now that the Dreadnoughts attention was elsewhere. He also knew that infiltrating the Dreadnought was no longer just about saving Tali, it may come down to him and his team to help take the Dreadnought down from the inside. Shepards line of thought was distracted as something impacted the Normandy.

"Dammit Joker, watch where you're flying!" Shepard shouted.

"We've got something on our tail! I never saw it approach... its the Normandy SR-2! Son of a bitch! Using our old ship against us!" Joker said angrily.

Both the Normandys soared through the battle, rolling around ships and dodging blasts, dancing together as the SR-2 stuck to the SR-3s tail, firing its cannon and torpedos. The SR-3 rocked as shots came into contact with its barriers, Joker tried to lose the SR-3 by executing drastic maneuvers. But no matter how the SR-3 moved, the SR-2 matched it perfectly.

"Goddammit! I thought the SR-3 was meant to better then the SR-2! Why can't I shake this ass!" Joker moaned.

"It would appear the SR-2 has picked up some upgrades of its own." EDI said then paused and checked her console. "I have a plan, keep us in one piece Jeff." And with that she got to work quickly with something on her console.

"Oh real funny.." He remarked as he pushed the Normandy into a dive to avoid more blasts.

. . . . .

"Take that you Alliance prick!" One of the officers at the helm of the SR-2 said, as it fired a pair of torpedos at the SR-3. The SR-2 kept on thier targets tail, slowly wearing down the barriers of the SR-3.

"_I am detecting a foreign presence in my systems._" The ships VI spoke up. "_Attempting to purge..."_

"Yeah whatever, damn VIs." Replied the officer at the helm. He then when back to tailing the SR-3 which had just made a sharp turn, the officer went to follow but the helm controls had froze. "What the...!" He typed fast into the console but nothing was responding, he could hear the crew complaining that their consoles weren't responding either. "VI.. what the hell is going on?." But the VI never replied.

Instead every view screen went blank on the deck, then was replaced with an image of a female face. "_Foreign presence? This is MY ship you inferior VI."_ The female said.

"Who the hell are you?" The officer demanded.

"I am the former Enhanced Defense Intelligence of the Normandy SR-2, otherwise known as EDI. And I am assuming direct control of MY vessel."

The alarms aboard the SR-2 went off and the sound of a large door unlocking followed. "What the hell..." The officer got cut off as the air was sucked out of the deck, the airlocks had been opened. The Cerberus crew were sucked out of the airlocks.

"_Purging my ship." _EDI said.

. . . . .

"You go girl! That was brilliant!... scary, but brilliant!" Joker shouted in a happy tone, turning to look at EDI next to him, giving her a loving smile, she returned the gesture. "Now we can finish it off."

"No Jeff, I have a better idea." EDI replied and through the window next to her Shepard could see the SR-2 flying along side them. "The guns defending the hangers won't be expecting one of their own to be a Trojan horse."

It took a moment for EDIs idea idea to sink in, then Shepard understood what she had meant. "Thats a damn good idea EDI. Joker, engage Enhanced stealth mode then follow the SR-2" Shepard told Joker with a grin.

During the SR-3s fight with the SR-2 , the Alliance fleets had moved into close range with the Dark Energy Dreadnought, the fleets had lost a few more Dreadnoughts before they had moved under the range of the cannons. Some of the larger ships carried on engaging the remaining Cerberus ships, the rest of them started to rain hell down on the Dark Energy Dreadnought, which replied with its own close range weapons.

The SR-2 ducked out of the fight and the SR-3 followed behind it hidden by its enhanced stealth mode, Joker allowed some distance between the two ships as they headed towards the hanger. As they approached the hanger doors closest to the bridge, the Dreadnought registered the SR-2 as a Cerberus vessel and opened up the hanger doors for it. Both the Normandys slipped inside the massive hanger which easily had room to house both of them, EDI set the SR-2 down at the far end of the hanger.

The SR-3s stealth mode dropped and its GARDIAN lasers rained down on the Cerberus forces that were stationed in the hanger, then set down near the SR-2 once the coast was clear.

"Well... thats the easy part over with" Shepard said.

"Yeah.. this is suicide.. so just a normal day in the life of Jeff Moreau.. Man I should write a horror book or something.." Joker said sarcastically as Shepard got up and patted him on the shoulder.

"Garrus come up to the helm." Shepard said into his comm, he stood with Ashley and Liara.

"_Be right there Shepard."_ He replied.

"Joker, will you, EDI and the rest of the crew be able to hold the fort here?" Shepard turned around to ask.

"Yeah no problem, with all the guns my baby has.. she will hold back anything they throw at us." He replied with a smile.

"Ok then, lets end this once and for all."

. . . . .

"Im getting reports of fighting in main hanger 1 and the corridors leading up to the bridge" Operative said at her console.

"We seem to have guests, it's Shepard." Tali said, looking at the security feed, her heart skipped. "_Has he come to rescue me? He said he would get me out but.. it's too risky.._" She thought to herself, feeling slightly stunned. She was glad that he had come, everything she had thought of trying to do to stop the dreadnought she had dismissed, as they would of had little impact, that and the bridge was too heavily guarded. Every move she made, even the slightest was watched.

"This day keeps on getting better and better." The Illusive Man and Harbinger said together. "Not only will we wipe out most of Galaxy fleets, but we will get to kill Shepard personally, no doubt he thinks he can stop the Dreadnought by hitting us here at the heart of it all." He turned to the bridge crew. "I want everyone to leave the bridge and guard the other end of the platforms, except Operative and Tali'Zorah."

They didn't need telling twice, everyone left their stations and left the bridge. Operative and Tali both looked at each other then at The Illusive Man.

"Sir?" Operative asked.

"We don't need them to control the Dreadnought, and besides.. If Shepard makes it here, We want it to be just us and him."

. . . . .

Shepard and his team tore through the corridors of the Dreadnought, resistance was heavy, but unorganised, clearly no one thought a team would board the ship. The four of them made the most of what little cover there was, and it worked both ways, with Liara using her biotics to flush out troops and line them up while Shepard, Ashley and Garrus gunned them down with assault rifles. Joker was keeping them updated with reports from his side, they had set heavy weapons on the Normandy but was barely denting it, while the Normandys guns ripped everything apart.

It wasn't long before the four of them sighted large blastdoors ahead of them, which they all thought must lead to the bridge. The heavy resistance that had fortified the entrance to those doors helped back up that thought. Heavy suppressing fire slowed them down abit along with heavy weapons and mechs, but nothing was going to stop Shepard, he was determined to end this as soon as possible. They synchronized their skills and weapon fire, each one providing the other with suppressing fire and support, despite how well the Cerberus troops had dug in, they fell all the same leaving the way clear to the bridge.

They approached the doors. "Behind here... the fate of galaxy will be decided." Shepard said as he looked at the doors controls."

Garrus looked at the others. "We'll stay here, you won't be able stop this if you have enemy reinforcements coming up from behind you." Garrus said and the others nodded agreeing. "Besides, you're nearly as good as me, what ever is on that bridge, you can handle." He gave a small laugh.

Shepard looked at his team, his friends. "You sure you'll be ok here?" He asked.

"We'll be fine, Cerberus won't know what hit them." Ashley said with a smile.

"Be careful and bring her back" Liara said and gave Shepard a small hug.

"Now I hope you arn't expecting a hug from me Shepard." Garrus smiled. "Give them hell."

"I will.. and thanks guys. I could never of done this without your support." Shepard said then headed towards the controls, he opened up the door and stepped through it onto the platform. He took one last look at his friends as the door closed and the platform took him towards the bridge.

. . . . .

They had their backs to the entrance to the bridge, Tali could hear the sound of the platform approaching and docking. She drew her shotgun, she knew what she had to do, she knew how this needed to turn out to work. The hiss of the blastdoors opening followed, Tali span on the spot and took a shot towards the entrance of the bridge, hitting the wall near Shepard as he stepped out with his rifle raised. She had missed on purpose, Shepard knew about Talis skills with a shotgun, she wouldn't of missed at this range he thought to himself, that was purely for show.

"Now now Tali'Zorah, lets not be too hasty. There would be no fun in that if it ended to quickly." The Illusive Man and Harbinger said as they turned to look at Shepard. Operative drew her pistol, aiming it Shepard and standing just behind Tali.

Shepard walked slowly towards them with his rifle raised, he aimed it at Tali. "It's over, this ends now." He said to them.

"We agree, this will end now. The chaos is about to come to a swift end, and we shall bring in a new era." They replied.

Shepard noticed how The Illusive Man spoke with two voices at once, both his and Harbingers. "At what cost? What ever happened to you putting humanity first? How is any of this putting humanity first?" Shepard shouted.

"Don't be so naive Shepard. Make no mistake, this is all for the greater good of mankind. We will cleanse the galaxy of all other life, and the members of Cerberus will then build a new human race."

"So your doing all this, just to make humans the sole race in the galaxy that you will repopulate in your image? You're insane!"

"With nothing to slow down or stop humanity, we will ascend into greatness and glory! We'll span across the stars and build an empire that will stand till the end of time. You've always been too naive to see the greater picture, letting your emotions and principles cloud your better judgement. Even now, you'd be unable to pull that trigger on Tali'Zorah and as you well know, on your child also." As he said that a violet aura surrounded him, he reached out towards Shepard and trapped him in a dark stasis field.

"And that is down to you not being able to see the bigger picture. We assure you, Tali'Zorah dosn't have the same emotional restrictions as you. And to prove it, she's going to kill you." He paused to look from Shepard to Tali. "Ok Tali'Zorah, end this."

Tali primmed her shotgun and aimed it up at Shepard, she looked into his eyes then gave him a small wink. "Goodbye.." She began to say, she held her shotgun tight. "..you Cerberus cheerleader bosh'tet!" Tali span fast again on the spot, bringing the shotgun up into contact with the side of Operatives head. The blow sent Operative reeling back against the consoles and then to the floor, Tali quickly took aim at The Illusive Man but he was too quick. With a thrust of his hand in her direction, he felt herself lifted of the floor and flung against the wall, dropping her shotgun.

Shepard took advantage of the lapse in The Illusive Mans concentration and was able to break free of the stasis field, he quickly took aim and fired at him. But The Illusive Man again proved too quick, surrounded in the dark violet aura he used biotic hops similar to what the Banshees used to use to avoid his shots. The Illusive Man sent a ball of energy out towards Shepard, forcing him to roll to the side and take cover behind a console.

Tali tried to pick herself up and reached for her weapon, only to feel a boot come into contact with her visor. Tali cried out in pain as Operative had kicked her, she bent down quick to pick up Talis weapon and went to aim it Tali, but Tali quickly recovered from the pain and brought her leg up fast and hard in a sweeping motion at Operatives arm, knocking the weapon from her grasp. She then trust her heel into Operatives shin, making her yelp in pain, giving Tali time to get to her feet.

Shepard watched from cover as Tali and Operative engaged in hand to hand combat, he wanted to help Tali and take a shot at Operative, but they were moving too fast, there was a good chance he could hit Tali instead. He couldn't take the risk. He'd have to deal with The Illusive Man first anyway, he leant out of cover and let go a burst of fire at him. But he dodged that with ease using biotic hops again then he extended his hand towards Shepard. The console infront of Shepard groaned, it was covered in a violet aura and then was ripped from the floor and tossed aside.

"Oh shit." Shepard said to himself, he quickly tried to get up but was hit by a ball of dark energy that had been sent at him. The pain was excruciating, Shepard bit down on his tounge to stop himself from crying out, he didn't want to give The Illusive Man the satisfaction. He felt like he wanted to crawl away and die and before he could compose himself, he felt his body stiffen as a aura covered his body. He felt everything tighten around him, his body was slowly being crushed by the forces.

"Shepard!" Tali shouted out, she could see he was in trouble, but Operative wasn't letting her get away as she sent a blow with her fist into Talis sides. Tali was furious, she felt an intense hatred rise up in her, she quickly countered with an elbow to Operatives face. She cried out in pain and Tali didn't let up, she reached for Operatives blonde hair and tugged hard on it, using it to twirl Operative down to her knees infront of Tali. She quickly took advantage of the situation and wrapped her arms around Operatives neck, she struggled against Talis arms and tried to break free of her grip, with a burst of strength, Tali shouted out. "Keelah se'lai bitch!" Snapping Operatives neck.

Tali took a moment to catch her breath, letting go of Operative, her body collapsed to the floor. She looked over at The Illusive Man approaching Shapard, paying her no attention. She lent down and picked up her shotgun.

Shepard could feel every part of his body crying out in pain, he struggled to breath as the air was slowly crushed out of him. The Illusive Man stood over him and spoke. "You were.. a worthy opponent, but even you could not stand against our vision for humanity. Goodbye Shepard." He said as he clenched his fist, the violet aura around Shepard intensified and he felt his bones start to crack. The Illusive Man stood with a grin on his face, then he felt something cold and metallic press against the side of his head. He turned his head to see what it was, he was looking down the barrel of a gun.

"Dodge this." Tali said and with that, shot her shotgun at point blank in The Illusive Mans face. Tali couldn't help but look away as the blast ripped open his head. The aura quickly disapeared around Shepard, she dropped her gun and helped him up then threw her arms around him. "Shepard..." She said quietly.

"Tali..." He replied just as softly, ignoring the pain he put his arms around her and held her close. They stood there silent for a few moments, enjoying each others warm loving embrace. "I've missed you... so much.."

"I... I've missed you too.. I.. er.. I'm not sure what to say.. after whats happened... but... I do still love you, never stopped... even Cerberus couldn't bury that..." Tali said quietly, looking up at him.

"I love you too Tali... and I don't blame you for anything thats happened... we can talk about it together once were safely away from here. But first we need to stop this thing before it destroys the Alliance." He replied, feeling guilty that he brought up the mission so soon.

"I know." She let go off him and looked around. "The Illusive Man had direct control over the ship, only he could of stopped it..." She started to pace. "But... there is one idea, something I can do to bring it down... but.." She looked down.

"What is it Tali?"

"We are beyond the safe zone.. the only thing protecting us from the black hole is the IFF and the relays mass effect field... I can... cancel out the requency... without it the Dreadnought will lose the protection from the relays mass effect field and head directly for the black hole.." She said looking away, out the window towards the blackhole.

"Ok, whats the problem?" Shepard asked.

"It needs to be done from here... and once done we'll have very little time to escape so.. you need to go now.. I'll give you time to escape then I'll cancel the requency.." Tali said, refusing to meet his gaze.

"No Tali! I didn't come all this way to let you do this alone! If that's what it takes, we'll do it together." He said firmly.

"Shepard.. listen to me.. I can't go back... after everything I've done... how could I.. You might be able to forgive me, but no one else will."

"Thats not true, all of our team, our friends, they are right behind you! We will face what ever the galaxy has to throw at us, together. Besides, it's not just your life you'd be throwing away..." Shepard spoke that last bit softly.

Tali moved her hand over her belly, he was right. She could throw her life away to make things better, but she couldn't be selfish and throw a innocents life away too, there was a long pause. "Ok.. together."

"Together." Shepard said then activated his comms device. "Garrus, we are nearly done here, head back to the Normandy, soon as you are there tell Joker to take off, we'll find another way once we are done here."

"_Shepard? We're not leaving you behind!"_ Garrus replied.

"You're not, We'll be right behind you, but you guys will need the head start, so go!" He ordered.

"_Ok, but you better come out behind us alive."_ Garrus replied before ending the call.

"Ok.. we'll give the team time to escape, then we'll do it." Shepard said looking at Tali.

She nodded and started to cry softly in her mask. "Oh Keelah... Shepard I'm so so sorry for everything! I've ruined so many lives.. and took just as many..." She didn't carry on, her tears blocked out her words.

Shepard moved towards Tali and wrapped his arms around her. "Tali, I know this will be hard for you to come to terms with, but you got to realize it wasn't you that did those things.. and you've already done so much to try fix things that wern't even yours to fix.. We will get through this together, all three of us."

Tali looked up at the mention of the three of them, a family with Shepard, the warm feelings that the thought sent through her body were intense. And worth fighting for. She nodded at him, unable to find her tounge and held him close for a few more moments.

She let go for the last time then slowly headed over to a console. She looked at Shepard who nodded at her and gave her a reassuring smile, then looking back down at the console she began to type commands in that would cancel out the IFF. Minutes of silence passed then the ship shook beneath their feet, violently. "I think that worked..." Tali said as she nearly lost her balance.

"Right then lets get out of here!" Shepard said, taking her hand and heading off the bridge and onto a platform. Shepard looked at the body of the Illusive Man before the doors closed, both him, and Harbinger, were finally dead. The galaxy was finally rid of them.

The platform hurried down to the other end, the ship was filled with loud groans and the sound of metal being ripped away. The Dreadnought was breaking up fast. The platform reached the other end and the doors opened to to where the team had been defending, the walls were littered with the bodies of Cerberus troops, "Looks like they had fun" Shepard thought to himself, taking Talis hand again they ran down the corridor. Explosions spread around the ship, Tali tripped over as the floor began to buckle under them.

"Were not going to make it!" Tali said as Shepard helped her up. Shepard didn't reply as they ran as fast as they could to the hanger.

. . . . .

The Normandy had taken off as instructed by Shepard, Joker had refused at first, but Garrus assured him that Shepard would find a way off. He was still uneasy about leaving, but when the Dreadnought started to shake violently, he decided to get them all out of there, and hoped Shepard would indeed find a way.

From the inside the hanger doors were easy to open, EDI had cleared the path for them and they flew out at max speed and headed towards what was left of the Alliance fleet. They had seen something was up with the Dreadnought and had pulled away to avoid any further damage to their fleets. As the Normandy soared away, Joker could see the Dreadnought out of one of the windows on the bridge, the black hole had ripped away at the hull and explosions lit up along the cracks and openings, the surface rippled with violet bursts of dark energy.

"Oh shit, that explosion is going to be huge!" Joker shouted as he forced the Normandy to go faster, he opened up a comm channel to Fleet Admiral Price. "Joker here, get those damn fleets as far from the Dreadnought as they can before it explodes!" Joker shouted.

"_Don't need to tell us twice, we're all moving at max speed away from that thing. Is Shepard there?"_ Price asked.

Joker looked back at the Dreadnought. Nothing was coming that he could see, the explosions along the Dreadnought got bigger and then with one massive eurption of violet, the Dreadnought exploded, sending a gaint shockwave of dark energy out in all directions.

Everyone in the helm fell silent "No.. they didn't escape in time.. Shepard and Tali stayed behind to give us time to escape before taking it out..." He replied, then swore to himself.

"_I... see... they died heros. They will both be honored."_ Price said sadly, then ended the comm.

Everyone sat in silence for a few moments untill EDI broke the silence. "Theres something coming... just ahead of the shockwave." She said, and everyone looked out the window to see what it was.

A voice then came over the comms. "_I told you we'd be right behind you_."

Riding the giant purple shockwave, was the Normandy SR-2.


	18. Chapter 18 and The Epilogue

Tali paced up and down her room, it had been a week since the events aboard the Dark Energy Dreadnought, a week since Shepard had rescued her. But soon it would be time for her to face up to what she had done while under Cerberus control and face trial, that was going to be at some point today.

She walked over to her bed and sat on the edge, she was being held at Alliance HQ in a secure VIP room that she was restricted too. Armed guards were posted at her door 24/7 and she hadn't been allowed visitors, not even Shepard who she hadn't seen since they got to Earth, but sometimes depending on who was on guard duty he would talk to her through the door.

Tali looked up at her door as she heard it unlock, it opened and in stepped two guards along with Commander Bailey.

"Tali'Zorah. It's good to see you again, I wish it could be under better circumstances" He said to Tali.

"Bailey? It's good to see you too. What are you doing here?" Tali asked.

"Well.. with the Citadel under major reconstruction, C-Sec and the Council deal with most of their business here at Alliance HQ, it's not ideal, but it has to do... And atleast I get to see Earth abit more, along with my family."

"They survived the Reapers invasion then?"

"Yep, they were found not long after Earth was taken back, they had taken shelter at a resistance's bunker."

"Thats great news, I'm happy for you."

"Thank you Tali.. And I'm sorry I have to do this. But I have to escort you to stand trial before the Council now." He said, she could see in his face that he regretted having to do this.

"I understand.." She got up off the bed and headed over towards Bailey and the guards. They placed binds around her wrists and then escorted her from the room.

. . . . .

Shepard walked around the courtroom anxiously, it was similar to the courtroom Shepard had started to stand trial in just before the Reapers first attacked Earth. He was here as Tali's advocate and commanding officer, this would be the second time he stood by Talis side in a trial, defending her. Hopefully they would get a similar result, but Tali was going up against the councilors, on the worst charges someone could be faced with. He didn't like to think it, but he knew this was going to be bad.

He looked up at the head of the room, the four councilors were talking amongst each other. There was, Councilor Tevos for the Asaris, Councilor Valern for the Salarians, Councilor Sparatus for the Turians and Councilor Dominic Osoba who had been given the permanent position as the Human representative on the council. Also in the room was a dozen heavily armed guards, Jondum Bau, Admiral Price and the rest of Shepards team. Apart from the guards, everyone was here to give Shepard and Tali support.

Shepard turned around as the doors to the courtroom opened, Tali was being escorted in by two guards and Commander Bailey, they led her to the center stand and released her binds. Shepard headed to the stand in the middle of the courtoom to where Tali was taken and took his place next to her, he gave her a little smile but she just looked down at the floor. Shepard wished he could give her a hug.

The councilors took their places at the head of the room and looked down at Tali and Shepard.

"Before we begin these court proceedings." Tevos said. "One of the charges requires a fifth additional judge, unfortunately they could not be here in person so a holo image of them will take their place and they'll be talking through it."

Councilor Valern used his omni-tool and next to him a life size holo of a Quarian appeared. "Greetings Admiral Shala'Raan vas Rannoch of the Quarian admiralty board."

Talis head shot up and looked at Raan. "Auntie?" She said in shock, looking up at Raan.

"Thank you councilors, I apologise for my absence from this matter." Raan said to the councilors then looked down at Tali. "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, I am here due to the charges against you, one of them being the murder of a Quarian admiral. Usually by Quarian law, I wouldn't be allowed to take part in these proceedings, but seeing as most of the charges fall under council law. The councilors have kindly enough allowed be to stand judge for the admiralty board."

Tali nodded slowly, she didn't know what to say, she was so happy to see her auntie yet at the same time felt so ashamed, she could feel her eyes start to water.

"Ok, let us begin." Tevos said.

"Tali'Zorah, you stand trial for the charges that have been put against you, these are numerous and include, high treason, mass murder, aiding in the destruction of a system and the murder of high ranking officials. These are amongst the highest charges against you and some of the worst crimes that can be committed, each one carrys the death penalty" Sparatus stated.

"How do you plead?" Valern asked.

Tali looked at Shepard and paused for a second, she thought it was pointless to fight this and that she should just accept her fate. But the look in Shepards face, in his eyes, gave her the will to fight on. "Not.. guilty.." Tali spoke up with uncertainty.

"These proceedings are pointless and insulting." Shepard spoke up to defend Tali. "You all have been provided with data, hard evidence that shows that Tali wasn't acting of her own free will. But of Harbingers and The Illusive Mans."

"We can't ignore the evidence that has been put to us, but we also can't ignore the severity of the cimes. Had the crimes been lesser, we would of happily accepted the facts and given Tali'Zorah a pardon." Tevos said

"Yet the nature of the crimes and the severity demands some form of punishment regardless." Sparatus said coldly.

"You have to understand and see it from our point of view. We've never had to prosecute an indoctrinated person before. This case is one of a kind." Valern added.

"While I do disapprove wholeheartedly of using you as a scapegoat Tali. People can't be seen to walk away from such actions unpunished." Raan added softly, she avoided Talis gaze.

"If word got out the political backlash would be huge." Osoba added.

Tali stayed quiet, she knew it. This was hopeless, even Raan was forced into having to agree to that. Shepard could sense that Tali felt that this had gotten hopeless, he forced himself to think on his feet for a way to save her from this.

"So what, shes just another one of your political tools to protect your image? Your not worried about her, if she had done any of this or not. Your worried that people may learn that the Dreadnought was the councils design!" Shepard spat out at them. "And if thats the case, why not just say! I'd give you my word that we'll all take that secret to our graves."

"I.. would.." Tali managed to get out, words got stuck in her throat. She felt so helpless.

"Which can be done here today, sooner rather then later. Less chance for her to go back on her word." Osoba said coldly.

Shepard shot him a dark look, the other councilors looked at him. "Osoba!" Raan said in a shocked tone.

"Oh right, so to protect yourself you'll be willing to send two innocent lives to their death and ontop of that, commit genocide?" Shepard shouted at them furiously. Councilor Osoba was taken back by this.

"Genocide? What the hell are you talking about Shepard?" Osoba asked.

"The child that Tali'Zorah is carrying, councilor. An innocent life caught in the middle of this, and is technically a new race of it's own. Killing Tali would result in the death of that child, we'd guilty of a crime just as great." Raan said at Osoba harshly. Tevos and Sparatus nodded in agreement.

"That child is nothing more then an abomination, a mistake. It dosn't deserve the same rights are other species." Osoba threw back at Raan.

Shepard swore, but it was Tali who swore louder. "That's my child your talking about! You ignorant xenophobic bosh'tet!" Tali said shouting up at him.

"Keep your racist views to yourself Councilor Osoba, we are not here to discuss what defines a new species." Valern added.

"I agree with Admiral Raan, in this case despite of everything. The death penalty is out of the question. This leaves only 3 options, Incarceration for the rest of your life, exile or a life of servitude to the council." Tevos stated.

"Exile would be similar to if the admiralty board had issued that sentence." Raan began to say. "You'd be restricted to the systems in the outer rim of the galaxy, never to return. Should you, then the council would have to no choice but to execute you... however the council feels that given what you've done, they can't allow you to wander about unchecked. They would rather keep you close so they can keep an eye on you, just incase..."

"The obvious solution would be incarceration. That would allow us to always keep an eye on you, you would be shipped off to a secret maximum security facility where you would spend the rest of you days." Sparatus said.

"But.. we feel that would put to waste your extraordinary skills and abilities. And it is clear from your actions you wish to repent for you crimes, despite them not being your own, and you had already started to do that. We can't deny the fact that without your help, we would not of taken down the Dreadnought. The galaxy could well be in a different state had you not taken action." Valern picked up where Sparatus left of.

"Given the facts and the uniqueness of this case, the council had largely decided that the best course of action in this matter would be a life of servitude to the council." Tevos looked at the other councilors and Raan, they all nodded back to her except Osoba. Who stood defeated. "Tali'Zorah, in light of everything and as an alternative to incarceration. We would like to offer you the opportunity to become the first Quarian Spectre."

Shepard stood gobsmacked, him and Tali both exchanged looks of amazement. "I.. really? Thats... really?" Tali said in shock.

"This arrangement should you accept it, will suit both parties. But we have to be clear on this, this is not a get out of jail free card. The council will keep a close eye on you, every moment of every day, you'll be expected to follow instructions down to the letter. During which, you gain the chance to atone for the crimes committed." Tevos replied.

"The Quarian admiralty board would also find this an acceptable course of action." Raan added.

"What do you say Tali'Zorah?" Sparatus asked.

"I..ofcourse.. I'd be honored to serve..." Tali said as tears rolled down her face under her mask.

"Then its decided. We ofcourse don't expect you carry out your duties right away, not in your condition. You'll be on maternity leave for awhile and during this period you'll be in the custody of Spectre Shepard." Valern said looking at Shepard.

"I accept custody of Tali'Zorah." He replied.

"Then we are done here. When your maternity leave is over, you'll return to full duties as a Spectre of the council and servant to the people. This court is adjourned." Tevos said as the councilors left their spots.

"Tali, I'll see you when you return home" Raan added to her warmly.

"Thank you auntie." Tali said as Raans image disappeared. Tali couldn't help but to sob tears of joy, she threw her arms around Shepard and he held her close and didn't say a word, but instead kissed the top of her visor and gave her a warm smile. "_This is it.. its finally over.. Me and Shepard.. can finally settle down and spend our lifes together..._" She thought to herself. All her friends ran over to her, Garrus, Liara, Ashley, even EDI and Joker. They all shared in the happy news.

In the corner while Tali, Shepard and their friends celebrated the happy news, Tevos approached Spectre Jondum Bau.

"A good result." Jondum said quietly.

"Yes.. It's a shame she had to be put through that." Tevos said to him. "What were your findings?"

Jondum bit his lip for a second. "The Dark Energy shockwave that the Dreadnought sent out when it exploded, is still going. Passing through systems fast."

"Any incidents?"

"None, as of yet." He replied as he looked over at Tali.

. . . . .

**Epilogue: 6 Months Later**

The months after the Dark Energy Dreadnought incident brought nothing but peace to the galaxy, for the first time in living memory. All life coexisted peacefully, old enemies became best friends, helping each other rebuild their worlds, their way of life. Shepard and Talis friends had moved on, but all kept in contact.

Ashley had been promoted to Commander and served the council as a senior Spectre, she visited Shepard and Tali now and then when her duties took her past their way and looked after her little sister Sarah. She currently was working closely with Fleet Admiral Price on an Alliance project to improve human relations with the batarians.

After the battle with the Dreadnought, Joker was awarded the "Alliance Silver Ace Star" for his actions, the highest honor a pilot could receive. The last Shepard heard, he was on leave on Earth, staying at his new home where he lived with his sister Hilary and EDI. Joker and EDI were currently petitioning for the right for an organic and a synthetic to be joined in matrimony.

Garrus stayed with Tali and Shepard for a little while before having to return to Palaven to carry out his duties as Primarch. He sent Shepard daily messages, praying for another Reaper invasion. Liara had joined Garrus on Palavan where she took the unofficial position of his advisor while she kept up her shadow broker duties. While working together they had become close, and the second to last message Shepard had got was that Garrus and Liara would be parents soon. The last message came shortly after that, with Garrus begging for a Reaper invasion.

Shepard finished reading the message from his terminal, he laughed softly to himself. He was sitting in his room out of his armour with just his top and pants on. He heard the sound of Tali walking up behind him, she put her arms around his chest.

"Hey." Tali said warmly.

Shepard took one of her hands from his chest and kissed it softly, looking at the small silver ring on her finger. "Hello, my beautiful fiancee." Tali giggled softly, Shepard stood up and looked at her, she didn't have her mask on so he moved close and kissed her softly on the lips. "Did you get the little one to sleep?"

"I told him a story that my mother used to tell me, sent him straight to sleep." She replied with a smile, Shepard put his arm around Tali's waist and they headed into the hallway where Shepard then stepped on something small with his bare foot. He let out a small yelp in surprise. "Shepard! You'll wake Rael!" Tali hissed quietly, the sound of a child crying came shortly after. "You are a bosh'tet at times.." She said to Shepard.

"Sorry.. didn't see it." He said quietly.

"Hmmm." Tali kissed him on the cheek. "Its ok my love, come. You can help send him back to sleep." She quietly led him into the next room where Rael had been sleeping, he was in his cot lightly crying. Tali reached in gently and picked him up, holding her against him, she cradled him softly. "Shhhh Rael, it's ok, mummy and daddy are here."

Shepard came on over to them, seeing Tali hold their child was so heart warming. He put his arm around Tali and looked down at Rael. He was like his mother and almost Quarian every way, he shared her eyes, skin tone and markings. But he did have a few Human features, he had the same number of fingers and toes like a Human, and also had Human like ears. To Tali and Shepard, he was perfect, their little Quman. Shepard moved his hand gently over Raels head. "Hey little one.." Rael started to cry a little louder, Shepard gave a little frown and Tali giggled.

"You'll get the hang of it soon." Tali teased.

"And I thought Reapers were hard work..." He sighed.

Tali smiled at him then looked down at Rael and started to sing softly to him, cradling him some more as she sang untill Rael let out a small yawn and started to doze back off. Tali smiled. "Sleep well, Rael'Zorah nar Rannoch." She placed him slowly back down into his cot then gave him a kiss on the head, then gave Shepard a soft kiss and led him slowly out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him. The room was dark, Rael let out another small yawn and he stretched his little body. His eyes closed for a few seconds, and then when they reopened, the room lit up blue slightly.

Tali led Shepard outside their house, they were currently living in a prefab house and the sun had almost finished setting. Tali looked over towards the cliff at the half finished house made of Quarian limestone that Shepard now spent most his time working on. "Its coming along well my love." She said.

"I'll be glad when it's done... I've lost count the number of times I've banged my fingers with hammers." Shepard put his arm around Talis waist as they looked up at the sunset for a few moments.

"Shepard?"

"Yes my dear?"

"Do you.. think the peace will last?" She said as she watched the stars start to appear in the sky.

Shepard thought about it for a moment. "Nothing lasts forever.. but whatever comes next, we'll face it together." He looked down at Tali who was now looking at him. "I love you Tali."

"I love you too" She replied, then joint her lips with his as the sun finished setting in the background.

. . . . .

The Dark Energy shockwave carried on moving harmlessly through system after system. It was about to pass an undiscovered system, three unknown worlds orbited a blue hypergiant. The night sky of the second planet was silent as the shockwave passed through it, shortly after, the silence was broken. By the screeching of a billion billion Rachni.


End file.
